期刊名称：IWH Diskussionspapiere / Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle
出版年度：2009
卷号：2009
出版社：Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle
摘要：Regarding technological innovativeness, the transformed economy of the former German
Democratic Republic (GDR) clearly lags behind the Western part of the country.
To face this weakness, a broad mixture of policy measures was carried out in recent
years. Particular attention is drawn to the development of industry concentrations and
economic ¡®clusters¡¯. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these policy
measures regarding how industry concentrations in fact promote innovative performance
in Eastern Germany. The present study tries to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship
between industry concentration in Eastern Germany and regional innovative performance.
Our empirical analysis is based upon the number of patent applications of 22
manufacturing industries in 22 Eastern German planning regions. The estimated regression
models indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between the degree of industry concentration
and innovative performance. An exceedingly high degree of industry concentration
in one region hampers regional innovative output. We discuss policy implications
of our findings and give recommendations for future refinement of ¡®cluster¡¯-
supporting policy schemes in Eastern Germany.
关键词：Industry concentration; Agglomeration; Specialization; Cluster;
Innovation; Patents; East Germany
