Networks and geography in the economics of knowledge flows: a commentary

In the paper "Networks and geography in the economics of knowledge flows" Maggioni and Uberti provide a rich and detailed overview of the current state-of-art and future challenges of the analysis of knowledge flows in economics. Maggioni and Uberti illustrate how geographical factors and network factors can explain spatial patterns of knowledge flows. This commentary portrays where the type of studies discussed by the authors fit in the wider literature on geography, networks and knowledge flows. Second, the commentary discusses the suggestions of future research the authors describe and proposes some further avenues for future research that are in line with those suggested by the authors. In particular, it zooms in onto the role of comparative statics in studies of network dynamics, stochastic estimation models of network evolution and content-based network analysis in pushing the frontier of research on networks, geography and knowledge flows.