Firm-level knowledge accumulation and regional dynamics

Two literatures have contributed to our insight into the determinants of economic growth. Regional agglomeration studies emphasize the favourable impact of geographical proximity on performance. However, the firms that constitute those agglomerations largely remain black boxes. In contrast, studies about technological learning explain economic performance at the firm level without systematically taking account of proximity effects. This paper proposes a possible way of bridging this gap by fusing elements from both partial literatures into an integrated framework. Its value added is illustrated with an empirical example.