Specialization of Regions and Universities - the new versus the old

This paper analyzes whether there is a correspondence between a university’s research spe-cialization and industrial specialization in the region hosting the university, and to what extent universities influences regional productivity. Moreover, the analysis seeks to answer if a dif-ference can be detected between the influences of old and new universities on regional per-formance. To achieve this end we utilize a unique dataset on spatially disaggregated data for Sweden in the period 1975-1999. A two-step Heckman regression analysis is implemented to examine whether the universities research specialization match regional specialization in pro-duction as compared to the average region. The results suggest a correspondence in speciali-zation, as well as positive productivity effects. However, there are also considerable differ-ences across regions, albeit primarily unrelated to the age of the universities.