The nexus between innovation and wellbeing across the EU space: What role for urbanisation?

The importance of innovation for economic performance and competitiveness, whatever the level of analysis adopted, is uncontroversial. Yet little is known about the relationship between innovation and (subjective) wellbeing. This paper empirically studies this issue in a spatial perspective by arguing that the expected positive link between innovation and wellbeing can be even more complex than might be thought, and by testing the expectation that this relationship varies according to the different types of innovation and spatial setting considered. The analysis takes advantage of regionalised data sets at the EU level on wellbeing derived from various waves of Eurobarometer surveys in the period 2007–2011, and on regionalised patents and trademarks, thus merging individual and regional data. The results indicate that different types of innovation have different impacts on wellbeing across space. Technology-intensive innovation, such as patents, yields its benefits only in the most urbanised regions, while the impact of less technology-intensive innovation, such as trademarks, is undifferentiated across space. Spatial spillover effects also play an important role for individual wellbeing, regardless of the type of innovation and the degree of urbanisation of a region. Some reflections on regional innovation policies are finally proposed and discussed with reference to the current debate on place-based regional policies.