Patents and the geographic localization of R&D spillovers in French manufacturing

This paper follows a 'geography of innovation' approach to test for France the hypothesis that patent activity within each administrative region is related to corporate expenditures on 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 industry R&D. At the regional level, university research proves to be the most crucial external source of knowledge for the innovative activities of manufacturing firms.