In this paper, we focus on the connections between creativity, social capital and economic performance and growth. Our working hypothesis is that both creativity and social capital influences the economy, both each per se, but also through their influence on each other. We regard creativity as...

Multinational firms (MNFs) have been shown to have a set of defining characteristics. Compared to domestic firms, they have a larger fraction of skilled workers, higher R&D to sales ratios and established networks to knowledge sources in several different countries. As illustrated by the...

This paper provides a conceptual discussion of relatedness, which suggests a focus on individuals as a complement to firms and industries. The empirical relevance of the main arguments are tested by estimating the effects of related and unrelated variety in education and occupation among...

Despite broad agreement on the strategic role of SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) in industrial renewal processes, the lack of systematized and comprehensive information on the nature and level of small innovative firms is striking. This bias is partly explained by an empirical shadow...

Do agglomerations stimulate productivity? An extensive literature on agglomeration economies, or urban increasing returns, has analyzed this question with aggregated spatial data. This paper estimates the relationship between agglomeration and productivity at the firm level using static and...

The relationship between start-up rates and regional economic development has been studied rather extensively in recent years. Dynamics in start-up rates have however received considerably less attention. In this paper we analyze the persistence of start-up rates across Swedish regions over a...

This paper examines how technology specialization, measured by citations-weighted patents, affects trade flows. The paper analyzes (i) the relationship between technology specialization and export specialization across regions and (ii) how the technology specialization of origin and destination...

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between knowledge accessibility and regional economic growth in Sweden. The research question we ask in this paper is the following: can the variation between regions in knowledge accessibility in a given period explain the variation in the growth...

This paper investigates whether domestic firms’ productivity is an increasing function of imports from the most knowledge intensive economies in the world, i.e. the G7 countries. Using Swedish firm-level data, we confirm an instantaneous causality going from imports to productivity. We also...

During the years, a large number of formal studies have presented evidences of a positive impact of university R&D on firm performance in general and on the location of industrial R&D, in particular. The question is does it also work the other way around? Does industrial R&D function as an...