Innovation in times of crisis: national system of innovation, structure and demand

This article addresses the impact of the current economic downturn on innovation across Europe. Using micro- and macro-data,weinvestigate to what extent some structural characteristics of National Systems of Innovation, along with demand, affect firms’ persistency in terms of innovation investment. It emerges that the effects of the economic downturn in terms of firms’ innovation investment are not thesameacross European countries. The competences and quality of the human resources, the specialization in the hightechnology sector, together with the development of the financial system seem to be the structural factors which are able to offset the effect of the economic downturn on innovation investments of firms across Europe. Finally, some considerations about policies during recessions are discussed.