Smart specialization strategies are a new EU approach to cohesion policy, meant to deliver growth and development at EU national and regional level. Bearing in mind its focus on place-based development strategies, this paper intends to shed some light on its appropriateness to tackle uneven...

The smart specialization concept was implemented in the EU in 2014, stating that regions have to specify specialization areas for development of innovations. Economic specialization reveals a comparative advantage in that field. However, there are different arguments linking specialization to...