In this study we investigate the factors that shape the attitudes of scientists toward starting their own business or working in a private sector firm. The analysis is based on data collected from scientists working in the German Max Planck Society, a research institution devoted to basic...

An emerging literature on the geography of bohemians argues that a region's lifestyle and cultural amenities explain, at least partly, the unequal distribution of highly qualified people across space, which in turn, explains geographic disparities in economic growth. However, to date, there has...

A new model of economic growth introduces the knowledge filter between new knowledge and economically useful knowledge. It identifies both new ventures and incumbent firms as the mechanisms that penetrate the knowledge filter. Recent empirical work has shown that new firms are more proficient at...

A new model of economic growth introduces the knowledge filter between new generic knowledge and economically-useful knowledge. It identifies both the formation of new ventures and the absorptive capacity of incumbent firms as the mechanisms that penetrate the knowledge filter. Recent empirical...

The present study explores the impact exerted by a series of factors and processes including creativity, IPR activities, new business formation and the provision of amenities on economic growth for 103 Italian provinces (NUTS 3) over the period between 2001 and 2006. Provincial growth rates are...

We conjecture that the mobility of academic scientists increases the propensity of such agents to engage in academic entrepreneurship. Our empirical analysis is based on a survey of researchers at the Max Planck Society in Germany. We find that mobile scientists are more likely to become nascent...

The aim of this paper is to test how geographical and technological proximity relate to a particular industry's innovative output. Two mechanisms are therefore tested, i.e. agglomeration economies and the regional exploitation of technological proximity. A new dataset is applied, which includes...

We analyze the spatial diffusion of knowledge in laser technology in West Germany from 1960, when this technology began, until 2005. Laser technology research has been nearly exclusively conducted in regions that are home to a university with a physics or electrical engineering department, an...