The innovative impact of public research institutes: Evidence from Italy

• Main Author: Robbiano, S. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V. 2022
• Subjects: Control methods; Difference in differences; Difference-in-differences; Differences-in-differences; Human capitals; Knowledge spillovers; Personnel; Public research institute; Public research institutes; Regional human capital; Regional innovation; Regional planning; Synthetic control; Synthetic control method
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 00487333 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104567

This paper leverages on the establishment of Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) as a policy change useful to understand the causal effect of public-funded research centres on the regional innovative capacity. By relying on the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) approach and Italian NUTS-3 panel data, empirical results suggest that the establishment of IIT has positively impacted on regional innovation and high-skilled human capital, as well as on regional growth. The paper also provides evidence of knowledge spillovers from IIT within the hosting region. Finally, these results are robust to a variety of placebo permutation tests as well as several sensitivity checks, or when considering a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.