The effects of technopoles and science parks on regional economies in Italy

The increasing interest of EU towards specific structures devoted to stimulate innovation as technopoles (TP) and science parks (SP) obliges to investigate their role in the overall economic context. The paper examines how performances and characteristics of technopoles and science park affect various aspects of Italian regional economies at NUTS 2 level. Our main aim is to assess the importance of TP and SP in stimulating growth through innovation, as well as entrepreneurship in the area they are established. First, we test the strength of the relationship between poles activities and the performance of firms located in the same region. Second, we investigate whether the presence and number of poles have an impact on both incentives to entrepreneurship and survival rates within their respective region. Finally, we shift our focus to each specific structure in order to test how their characteristics affect market performance of associated firms. Each of the three parts include also an aggregation of results by macro-area. It is important to note how empirical research is mostly descriptive, notwithstanding we are able to deliver a few useful insights that might be relevant to public decision makers. Key–Words: Technopoles, Science Parks, growth, patents, entropy