Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/29983 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IWH Discussion Papers No. 8/2009
Publisher: 
Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH), Halle (Saale)
Abstract: 
Regarding technological innovativeness, the transformed economy of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) clearly lags behind the Western part of the country. To face this weakness, a broad mixture of policy measures was carried out in recent years. Particular attention is drawn to the development of industry concentrations and economic clusters. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these policy measures regarding how industry concentrations in fact promote innovative performance in Eastern Germany. The present study tries to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship between industry concentration in Eastern Germany and regional innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based upon the number of patent applications of 22 manufacturing industries in 22 Eastern German planning regions. The estimated regression models indicate an inverted Ushaped relationship between the degree of industry concentration and innovative performance. An exceedingly high degree of industry concentration in one region hampers regional innovative output. We discuss policy implications of our findings and give recommendations for future refinement of clustersupporting policy schemes in Eastern Germany.
Subjects: 
Industry concentration
Agglomeration
Specialization
Cluster
Innovation
Patents
East Germany
JEL: 
R12
O31
O38
P25
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
302.39 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.