Innovation, entrepreneurial activity and competitiveness at a sub-national level

The capability to generate new knowledge and to create new firms differs across regions. Our study is an attempt to test the extent to which differences in such capabilities are associated with regional competitiveness. Using data from Spanish NUTS2 regions for the period 2000-2004, our results show that a higher capacity of a region to simultaneously generate new knowledge and start-up firms is positively linked to its level of competitiveness. This finding supports the belief that innovation per se is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for regional economic development.