4.0 Technological Revolution and Economic Competitiveness: Unexpected Opportunities for Peripheral Areas

This paper discusses the territorial dimension of the growth and productivity impact of the creation of 4.0 technologies. On conceptual grounds, the paper posits that a large heterogeneity can exist across regions in their type and intensity of technological invention, which does not necessarily depend on their core or peripheral nature. The paper explains that the nature of 4.0 technologies is such that it provides opportunities to participate in the creation of new technologies for regions otherwise considered as weakly innovative. On empirical grounds, the paper proves such a claim based on the use of an original large-scale patent database built by the authors covering the creation of all 4.0 technologies across all European NUTS2 regions in the 2000-2015 period. In particular, the paper shows that the creation of 4.0 technologies is positively associated with GDP and productivity growth in peripheral regions, effects that under specific circumstances can be comparable with if not greater than in core regions.