Knowledge externalities and growth in peripheral regions: introductory notes

The aim of this paper is to discuss the idea that knowledge externalities, as discussed in the Endogenous Growth Theory, can be spread over any kind of space. Although this point has already been discussed by some scholars in the heterodox tradition (Nelson, 1998, Martin and Sunley, 1998, among others), we would like to bring into discussion a new perspective that analyses the validity of this assumption in peripheral regions/countries. It will be argued that there are some peripheral structural conditions that constrain the generation, transfer and absorption of knowledge externalities. Above of all, it will be argued that the construction of “space” in the periphery is determinant for the absence of widespread diffusion of this kind of externality. This conclusion implies that the generality of the New Growth Theory is very difficult to be assumed.