European Integration and Knowledge Flows across European Regions

Cappelli R. and Montobbio F. European integration and knowledge flows across European regions, Regional Studies. Using data on inventor citations and inventor collaborations, changes in geographical patterns of knowledge flows between European regions during the period 1981–2000 are analysed. It is shown that inventor collaborations become less geographically localized, while inventor citations become more localized. The European integration process has a significant effect on reducing barriers to knowledge flows between new and old European Union members. For inventor citations, this effect relates only to the European Union enlargement of 1995 and is confined to knowledge flows from Austria, Finland and Sweden to old European Union members.