TECHNOLOGY AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF PATENTS AND FIRM LOCATION IN THE SPANISH MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS INDUSTRY.



Baleares______________

_______________4.5

10.5

32.9

1.49

1.46

Canarias______________

_________________8.1

________8.7

23.0

2.66

1.67

Cantabria_____________

_______________0.7

1.9

13.2

0.22

_________0

CastillaDLa Mancha

_______________2.5

________4.1

________7.0

0.82

_________0

CastillaDLeon_________

_______________0.5

________0.8

15.5

0.17

0.39

Catalonia_____________

_________________3.1

45.9

160.4

0.98

1.21

Extremadura_________

_______________6.4

4.6

17.7

2.10

_________0

Galicia________________

_______________5.0

6.2

15.3

1.64

2.96

Madrid_____________

_______________2.6

30.2

122.0

0.85

0.63

Murcia______________

_______________3.5

________8.2

31.0

1.16

3.71

Navarra______________

_______________4.2

46.1

76.9

1.37

1.04

Basque Country______

________________1.5

11.9

63.8

0.48

0.23

La Rioja_____________

_______________2.7

11.3

30.3

0.89

_________0

Com. OfValencia_____

_______________4.9

25.9

72.0

1.61

1.74

Notes: The percentage of patents means the ratio of medical equipment patents on the total patents
granted to residents in that region. They have been considered two Patenting ratios. PIl has been
calculated as the number of patents granted in the 1979□1995 period to Spanish residents in the medical
equipment sector for million of inhabitants. PI2 also includes the utility models. The Relative
Technological Advantage RTA is the ratio between the national and regional percentage of the patents
granted to medical equipment and the total number of patents in each region. There are two RTA ratios:
RTAl includes all patents while RTA2 only includes patents granted to companies and institutions.
Source: Own production

This result is also given by the Relative Technological Advantage (RTA). The ratio

RTAy of a region i in an industry j is defined as:

m

PATij/ ∑ PATij

RTAij


__________j=1________
n n m

∑ PATij/ ∑ ∑PATij

i=1      i=1j=1

where PATy is the number of patents granted to residents of the region i in the industry
j, n is the number of regions and m is the number of industries. We have calculated two
ratios: RTAl includes all patents granted, and RTA2 includes only patents granted to
industrial firms and institutions, because those patents are the result of R&D activities
in companies and universities. Those regions with a RTA (Table 6) higher than 1 have a
greater patenting specialization in medical equipment than in other activities.

3. An approach to the factors determining the spatial distribution of medical equipment
innovative activities

Any explanation of the patenting activities of industrial firms has to be based on an
understanding of the determinants influencing this behaviour (Fischer
el al 1994). In
this section elements from different theoretical contributions and empirical studies will
be drawn into a conceptual framework for analysing determinants that may explain the



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