The Impact of Related Variety on Regional Employment Growth in Finland 1993–2006: High-Tech versus Medium/Low-Tech

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of related variety on regional employment growth in Finland between 1993 and 2006 by means of a dynamic panel regression model. We find that related variety in general has no impact on growth. Instead, after separating related variety among low-and-medium-tech sectors from related variety among high-tech sectors, we find that only the latter affects regional growth. Hence, we find evidence that the effect of related variety on regional employment growth is conditioned by the technological intensity of the local sectors involved.