This paper contributes to the analysis of the persistence of innovation activities, as measured by total factor productivity (TFP), and explores its internal and external determinants stressing its path-dependent characteristics. The external conditions, namely the quality of local knowledge...

During the last 40 years, economics of innovation has emerged as a distinct area of enquiry at the crossing of the economics of growth, industrial organization, regional economics and the theory of the firm, becoming a well-identified area of competence in economics specializing not only in the...

Innovation is the result of intentional decision-making that takes place in out-of-equilibrium conditions. Profitability is a reliable indicator of equilibrium conditions, far better than competition, as it integrates the effects of out-of-equilibrium conditions in both product and factor...