The importance of clusters and cluster policies has been slowly increasing in the competitiveness context and in regional development models. Right now, clusters are very widespread as policy tools and are basically linked to three elements: firstly, the geographical concentration of economic activity; secondly, relations between the members of the cluster (enterprises and other players, like the administration itself, R&D&i centres, etc.); and thirdly, more effective functioning made possible by a combination of co-operation and competition that boils down to benefiting everyone. The aim is to achieve levels of competitiveness and greater regional development.

Jonatan Paton, a researcher in the UPV/EHU's Department of Applied Economics V, has based his research into the validity of clusters and their policies on two hypotheses. The first focuses on the more or less widespread belief that clusters function as elements that allow the competitiveness of companies to be improved, thus contributing towards regional development at the same time. The second hypothesis deals with the relevance of clusters as policy tools. As the researcher pointed out, at the start of the thesis, the cluster phenomenon was seeing a boom, and the interest and opportunity to explore how they were being introduced and whether the policies were yielding good results was perceived, since internationally it has not been a homogeneous process.

After studying many cases on an international level to characterise the cluster phenomenon in different parts of the world, he analysed the case of the Basque Country, "because it is," as the researcher himself says, "one of the pioneering experiences with a cluster policy spanning over twenty years". The international cases have been studied using a qualitative methodology -bibliographical search, websites, interviews, etc. and even by observing some experiences in situ- in view of the difficulty in transferring this analysis to the quantitative field, since data are not usually available and, when they are, there are difficulties attached to the comparability of the statistics and to time series that are too short. For the specific case of the Basque Country, however, it has however been possible to analyse them by means of a quantitative methodology, thanks to the availability of information from the Basque Institute for Statistics, Eustat, and from the BAC Government, and from previous pieces of work on the subject. One of the advances that this research has led to has in fact been the academic review of the quantitative methodology and testing for the case of the Basque Country.

Need for a policy review
The BAC was a pioneer in the launching of clusters (back in the early 1990s), and they started to become more widespread in more countries at the turn of this century. But despite the very widely held belief that clusters are useful tools for competitiveness, the anticipated results are not achieved everywhere, and there are significant methodological and conceptual differences as far as this subject is concerned. The research has concluded that the cluster associations launched in the Basque Country were well chosen, and that they have also contributed towards the competitiveness of companies, which can be perceived in terms of better levels of productivity and more exports. It is difficult to prove the causes, but it is clear that the existence of a cluster in a sector seems to be linked to better performance in terms of competitiveness and exports," asserted the researcher.

It can be highlighted, as the research concludes, that the cluster policy set up in the Basque Country has contributed towards a significant proportion of the benefits of Basque clusters. This policy is based on three phases: the spotting of sectors that could be clusters, support for these associations, and finally, the review of the situation. This is no one-off policy at a specific moment "but one that has to go on being reviewed," said Paton, "because the economic setup itself is changing, and because technology and competitive trends gradually evolve". According to the researcher, this is another added difficulty in the research because the field to be researched is linked to a context with deeper, more frequent changes. In the Basque Country the process to choose the sectors was participatory, and associations were gradually set up whenever the sectors had the capacity and, above all, displayed cluster awareness: since halfway through the 1990s eleven clusters (known as "priority" ones) have been set up, and about a decade later the whole policy was reviewed and a decision was made to introduce new sectors (a further eleven known as pre-clusters).

Right now, the cluster policy and the cluster associations themselves are immersed in an interesting reflection process. It is a reflection against the backdrop of international trends on the role they will need to play in development models that are seeking specialisation as a means of contributing towards regional development.

Additional information
Jonatan Paton (Barakaldo, 1983) is a doctor in Economics. Right now, he is a researcher at Información y Desarrollo, S.L. INFYDE. The research was carried out in the Department of Applied Economics V of the Sarriko Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences (UPV/EHU).

Bibliographical references
J. del Castillo, J. Paton (2015) 'The great Basque transformation: Towards sustainable innovations". GREMI T Project ASELInn "Anchorage, sustainability, and localisation of innovation: Towards new forms of territorialisation of economic activities?'.
J. del Castillo, J. Paton, B. Barroeta (2013) 'The AEIs Programme Final Evaluation 2007-2011: New insights on cluster and cluster policy contribution to competitiveness". Svillupo Locale. Vo. XVI - N.40 2013, pp 47-80.
J. del Castillo, J. Paton (2011) "Methodology for Cluster Mapping and Impact Analysis. Identifying Critical Mass for Innovation'. Journal of Business and Economics, Volume 2.
J. del Castillo, J. Paton (2010) 'Política de promoción y reconversión industrial'. Ekonomiaz. 25 Aniversario pp. 96-123.