The spatial evolution-institution link and its challenges for regional policy

Contemporary economic geography acknowledges that regional economies develop in evolutionary processes, and that institutions matter in this process. Evolutionary dynamics have been classified into five types of path development (path extension, path branching, path diversification, path creation, path importation, and path upgrading) that serve to distinguish how precisely regional economies diversify or upgrade. Shaping these evolutionary dynamics is a major objective policymakers aim to achieve by applying regional policies with an evolutionary ambition such as smart specialization. However, there is a gap in understanding how the specific institutional arrangements found in regional economies condition these different types of path development. The article links path development to institutional context and identifies policy challenges for affecting evolutionary dynamics under the smart specialization approach.