You have to (Br)enter to (Br)exit: The EU collaboration space

Abstract

Co-inventor data gathered from EU patents are used to measure collaboration in knowledge production between all pairs of nuts2 regions in the EU15 between 1980 and 2005. Gower’s similarity index is employed to visualize the inter-regional collaboration space. National borders exert a strong influence on inter-regional collaboration in the first period examined as regions within countries tend to cluster together. Over time, these national border effects relax especially for continental partners. UK inventors are relatively isolated over both periods. The data imply that (Br)exit might have little impact on the geography of collaboration for UK inventors.