Abstract

This paper adopts a “geography of innovation” approach to test for France the hypothesis that patent activity within each administrative region is related to corporate expenditures in R&D in that territory, as well as research expenditures undertaken in universities located in the same area. It emerges that French manufacturing firms (both private and state-owned) benefit significantly from knowledge produced within the geographical area in which they are located, although the coefficient estimated for the university R&D variable is equally significant but higher than that for the industry R&D one. At the reginal level, university research therefore turns out to be the most crucial source of knowledge spillovers for the innovative activities of manufacturing firms.