Knowledge Production in Swedish Functional Regions 1993-1999

Knowledge production function approaches to estimation of knowledge flows in regions have recently come under attack not to open the ’black box’ of knowledge creation and it has been questioned whether spillovers really are the key determinant of knowledge diffusion rather than market mechanisms. Nonetheless, KPF approaches can be useful to get a rough picture of the aggregate magnitude of agglomeration effects pertaining to knowledge. We improve on the literature by studying, within a KPF framework, the relationship between the amount of R&D of firms and universities and the amount of patent applications for Swedish functional regions 1993-1999. Extraregional knowledge flows are weighted by the frictional effect of time distance. Presently the analysis has not been conducted within a proper spatial econometric framework and we therefore refrain from drawing any precise conclusions of the estimates.