Published in Research Policy this week, together with Ziyu Chen and Xiaohu Zhang.

Available here: tinyurl.com/3tp4nwha or send me PM).

These findings highlight the importance of micro-spatial dynamics for understanding long-run urban #competitiveness.

They suggest that innovation #policy may benefit from being more neighborhood-aware.

Analyzing 16 mil #patents in 260 Chinese cities, we find that technologies concentrated in neighborhood-level clusters:
- Are more likely to become new citywide specializations
- Tend to reinforce related diversification rather than radical jumps
- Are associated with higher technological complexity

Much of the research in economics and economic geography treats cities as “black boxes.”

We show that where #innovation happens within cities matters a great deal. Neighborhood #tech #clusters shape citywide innovation paths!