This work reflects an initial analysis employing a pioneering new OECD database; it is among the
first systematic attempts to analyse comparatively the distribution of innovative activity across regions in
OECD economies with a set of homogenous measures for both input and output in the process of
knowledge production and dissemination.
The descriptive analysis shows that there are important differences in the inventive performance of
regions in OECD economies, as measured by indicators for one of the key types of intellectual assets (i.e.,
patents). Inventive performance is concentrated in some regions in continental Europe, in North America
and Japan. Highly inventive regions tend to cluster together. This spatial dependence is found to have
increased over time. The inventive performance of regions is directly influenced by the availability of
human capital and R&D expenditure. Local agglomeration factors (proxied by the density of population)
are also found to have a significant impact while some negative effects appear when regions are mainly
rural or when they are mainly service-oriented. Cross-country differences point to the importance of
national innovation systems which shape the institutional framework within which innovation takes form
and diffuses.
