Estimating the economic impacts of knowledge network and entrepreneurship development in smart specialization policy

Abstract

An undesirable result of the rapid implementation of smart specialization into the framework of European Union Cohesion Policy was that it left several practical issues unanswered. An important unanswered issue is the implementation of economic impact assessment in a smart specialization policy context. Integrating entrepreneurship and interregional network policies into an economic modelling framework is considered among the most prominent challenges. This paper introduces how these two policies are implemented in the GMR-Europe (geographic, macro and regional) model. The simulations highlight that smart specialization policy targeting the development of entrepreneurship and knowledge networks is not equally successful in all regions.