Innovation, knowledge spillovers and local labour markets

Abstract.  This article investigates the role played by geography in the promotion of innovation. In order to examine these issues we employ empirical data from Finland in order to test the extent to which the variety and nature of face-to-face contacts affects the innovation performance of the firm. In addition, we then also control for the geographical mobility of the labour employed by the firm. This allows us to identify the different roles that the geography of knowledge spillovers and exchanges and the geography of labour markets play in the innovation process.