Martins, Júlio Paulo da SilvaRodríguez-Gulías, María JesúsRodeiro-Pazos, DavidRíos Rodríguez, Raúl2023-11-092023-11-092023-08-19J Knowl Econ (2023)1868-7865http://hdl.handle.net/10347/31241One of the main objectives of science and technology parks (STPs) is to contribute to regional development through the creation of skilled jobs in the territory where they are located. However, despite the expansion of these infrastructures over the last decades and the governmental support they receive, there is very little empirical evidence on how these infrastructures affect the employment growth of the firms located there. The aim of this paper is to examine whether the location in STPs has positive effects on employment growth at the firm level. We analysed a sample of 553 Portuguese firms located on STPs and a control group of the same size of comparable firms located outside STPs, applying a dynamic panel data model methodology. The empirical evidence does not allow to prove that location in STPs has positive effects on employment growth, which raises the need to rethink the policies supporting these parkseng© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were madeAtribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Science and technology parks Employment growth Location efects Regional development Dynamic panel datajournal article10.1007/s13132-023-01466-81868-7873open access