L'IMPACT DES STRUCTURES LOCALES SUR L'INNOVATION EN FRANCE : SPECIALISATION OU DIVERSITE ?

Starting from the dynamic externalities debate presented by Glaeser and al. in 1992, many recent econometric studies attempt to assess the impact of specialization and of the sector-based diversity of agglomerations on local growth dynamics. Contrary to theoretical approaches however, these studies generally don't provide direct analysis of the role of knowledge externalities because they attach little importance to research and development activities. Hardly any geography and innovation studies exist on that theme and they nearly always deal with the United States. In this paper, we propose a study of the French case, which confronts the respective roles of specialization and diversity on localized R&D data so as to assess the impact on innovation production. Specialization appears as unfavorable to the local dynamics of innovation in France whereas the results on diversity reveal some more complex spatial processes.