Innovation, Democracy and Efficiency : Exploring the Innovation Puzzle Within the European Union?s Regional Development Policies

Endogenous growth theory has significantly impacted most of the developing and developed countries, shifting priorities of industrial policies towards innovation. In line with this trend, the European Union significantly increased its budgetary allocation for R&D. However, statistical data show a weak correlation between R&D expenditure and the acceleration of economic growth. Regional innovation policies display divergent returns according to different institutional conditions and policy choices.

Grillo and Nanetti attempt to understand the reasons that lie behind differences in performance. Their results show that better performing innovation strategies require the following factors: clear choices of locally congruent smart specialization; strong capacity of public investment to stimulate additional private investment; clear distribution of responsibilities for decision-making and independence of policy implementation from political interference; and problem solving partnerships amongst innovators, universities, and governments that pre-exist the programmes. These factors point to a relationship between democracy (defined as openness of policy-making) and innovation (as technology-enabled growth) which is explored throughout this book.

Francesco Grillo is advisor to Italy's Minister for Education, Universities and Research on national innovation policies and is affiliated with the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. He obtained his PhD in Political Economy at the London School of Economics, UK. He is Managing Director of Vision & Value (consulting firm), and advises the European Commission on innovation and smart specialization. Grillo is a regular contributor on Italy and Europe for the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

Raffaella Y. Nanetti is Professor Emerita of Urban Planning and Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, and part of the core team of the Economic and Social Cohesion Laboratory in London, UK. She is an Associate of Italy's National Research Council (CNR) in Rome. Her main research areas are policy and programme evaluation, research design and methodology, and territorial development policies. She has directed community development studies and territorial assessment projects, sponsored among others by the European Union and the World Bank.