1 Evaluating Innovation and Labour Market Relationships: The Case of Italy Luca PIERONI - Fabrizio POMPEI Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics University of Perugia. ABSTRACT In this paper the link between labour market flexibility and innovation is analysed, paying particular attention to the different technological regimes of economic activities and the different geographical areas of the Italian economy. A dynamic panel data specification is used to assess the endogenous relationship between patents, included as a proxy of the innovation, and job turnover and wages which represent labour market indicators. The results show that higher job turnover only has a significant and negative impact on patent activities in regional sectors of Northern Italy, while a positive and significant impact of blue and white collar wages has been generally found. Key words: Labour market flexibility, Innovation, Dynamic panel data, Endogeneous relationship J.E.L. : R12; J40; O31 Acknowledgement: We are grateful to both the participants of the Italian Association for the Study of Comparative Economic Systems (AISSEC) Conference, Naples, 27-28 February, 2004, and those of the 94 th Applied Econometric Association Conference, Naples, 01-02 June, 2006, for their suggestions. All errors are our own.