Institutional quality and innovation: evidence from Emilia-Romagna

In the last few decades, the role of institutions has received renewed attention as a key factor to foster regional growth and innovative performance, raising researchers’ interest in assessing the mechanisms through which the institutional framework could affect innovation. This paper, by focusing attention to the Emilia-Romagna context, empirically investigates the effects on innovative capacity related to higher institutional quality and to its dimensions. This region, in fact, provides–due to the performance achieved in the new economic scenario (EMU, globalisation, Industry 4.0)–a relevant testing ground to verify the extent to which the evolution of regional institutions has favoured the creation of a fertile ecosystem able to promote innovative capacity. The main findings reveal a positive role associated with two fundamental institutional components: the quality of public services (government effectiveness) and the degree of association and social cooperation (voice and accountability), which represent the most important institutional dimensions in this region.