EN
Development of scientific and technical knowledge has become the prime growth factor behind modern economies. A big part in economic development is therefore played by universities, as institutions expanding and disseminating such knowledge. There is an extensive literature underlining the key role of local universities in establishing areas, such as Silicon Valley, Boston's 128th Street or the environs of Cambridge, UK, which remain the most important concentrations of peak technology. The paper's account of the wide international literature on this subject seeks to shed light on whether the economic effect of these university knowledge transfers can be replicated, or whether they were one-off occurrences. The nature of the spatial dissemination of knowledge has a decisive bearing on this. The literature can be divided into two schools, concentrating on location choice and direct knowledge-transfer researches respectively.