Economic Development and Innovation Studies (UNU)

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United Nations University
Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology (Netherlands)

Course: Economic Development and Innovation Studies (Audio)

Course Description

In this course, the student will develop an in-depth understanding of the Economics of Technological Change, with a special emphasis on issues related to economic change and innovation dynamics in the world economy.

Lectures

Lecture 1 - The economic impact of technological change and innovation: a historical overview In this lecture Verspagen will provide a historical perspective on the innovation process, and its impact on the economy. He will start by reviewing several basic notions in innovation analysis, illustrated by two historical cases. He will then sketch out the idea of long waves of economic development, as developed by Freeman, Soete and others.

Lecture 2 - Intellectual property rights: the role of patents in innovation In this lecture Verspagen will address the economic theory of intellectual property rights (patents), posing the questions: why are patents useful for innovation, and how should they be designed.

Lecture 3 - The microeconomic foundations of the economic theory of innovation In this lecture Verspagen will cover several basic models that analyse the microeconomic aspects of innovation and the economy. These include models of patent races, and an evolutionary model of market structure and innovation.

Lecture 4 - Macroeconomic analysis of technological change Here Verspagen will first cover the basic concepts necessary for the macroeconomic analysis of innovation (the production function and productivity), followed by an analysis of the relationship between employment and innovation.

Lecture 5 - Indicators of innovation and technological change: R&D and patents This lecture will outline the use of patents and R&D as innovation indicators.

Lecture 6 - Economic growth: an evolutionary view This lecture will introduce the main stylized facts of the process of modern economic growth, and will provide a broad historical explanation for it, based on an evolutionary theory of economic change and innovation.

Lecture 7 - Endogenous growth theory This lecture will explain how mainstream economic theory has incorporated the role of innovation in economic growth.

Lecture 8 - Globalization, location and innovation This lecture will explain how technology plays a role in globalization (i.e., increased Foreign Direct Investment flows and international trade flows), and address how geographical location interacts with innovation.

Lecture 9 - Evolving policy perspectives on innovation This lecture will discuss how governments have tried to influence the process of innovation and technological change over the past 50-60 years.

Lecture 10 - innovation studies: how the scholarly community works This final lecture will explain the evolution of the scholarly community focusing on innovation, over the past few decades.