Brossard, Olivier and Moussa, Inès (2014) The French cluster policy put to the test with differences-in-differences estimates. Economics Bulletin, 34 (1).

Abstract

There is an abundant literature on innovative clusters but the incidence of cluster policies is hardly ever assessed. We assemble a panel of 94 French regions for 1997-2008 and use difference-in-differences regressions to evaluate the cluster policy that is being implemented in France since 2004-2005 in some of these regions. We obtain a positive, significant but rather small impact on patenting.