Empirical Research Avenues for Regional Policy Elaboration

Abstract

This Working Paper presents the findings from an exploratory analysis financed by the FORINNPOL-programme (project no. 271925/O50) and the BIONÆR-programme (project no. 244249) under the Research Council of Norway (RCN). The main purpose of the FORINNPOL-programme is to expand and improve the knowledge base for use in the design and implementation of research- and innovation policy by relevant actors. In doing so, the programme has financed a handful of scoping papers which seek to pave the ground for future avenues of research in the field.

Our study constitutes one of these papers, and explores research avenues that can help policymakers to assess regional capabilities for “green” economic restructuring. It seeks to harmonize inputs from the innovation studies literature on the product space within the framework of the economic geography studies on regional boundaries.