R&D EXPENDITURE AND REGIONAL INNOVATION IN ITALY: EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

This study investigates the relationship between Research and Development (R&D) expenditure and innovation across Italian regions, employing patent applications as a proxy for innovation output. The primary objective is to assess the extent to which different types of R&D expenditure — higher education, business, and public sector — contribute to regional innovation capacity, under the assumption that knowledge constitutes a fundamental driver of economic growth. The findings reveal that higher education R&D expenditure has a significant and positive long-term impact on patent production, while business and public R&D expenditures show no statistically significant effects. These results highlight the central role of universities in Italy’s innovation system and suggest policy implications aimed at enhancing university-industry collaboration and improving the effectiveness of public R&D funding.