International opportunities for students

Details

Instructor: Andrea Mina, andrea.mina [at] santannapisa.it

Class hours: 36, 6 ECTS - Syllabus 2018-2019

Contents

The course focuses on the economic treatment of technical change. It broadens and deepens the analysis of science, technology and their economic applications by selecting topical problems of relevance for modern businesses, academia and policy.

Objectives

The course will equip the students with theoretical frameworks and analytical tools that are necessary to inform strategic decisions on the funding, management and governance of innovation. The students will learn how to apply first principles to key societal challenges (e.g. technology and unemployment; the environment and health) whose origins or possible solutions involve technological change.

List of topics:

  • Foundations (the Economics of Knowledge Revisited)
  • Economic growth and the research base
  • Measuring technical change; Innovation and firm growth
  • The economics of standards; General purpose technologies
  • Agglomeration economies and high-tech clusters
  • Funding gaps and innovation intermediaries
  • Networks and innovation
  • The economics of the Internet
  • Skills, employment and technology
  • Green innovation
  • The economics of health technologies.

Prerequisites

The course builds on the mandatory components of Year I and there are no additional requirements that may constrain access to and absorption of the materials.

Teaching method

The course will be delivered in 12 three-hour long sessions involving formal lectures, discussion, case presentations, and questions. The lectures' slides will be made available through the dedicated online platform.

Evaluation method

25% in-class presentations; 25% report; 50% written exam.

Teaching material

  • Dodgson, M., Gann, D. M., Phillips, N., (Eds.) 2014, The Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
  • Dosi, G. 1988, Sources, Procedures, and Microeconomic Effects on Innovation, Journal of Economic Literature 26(3): 1120-11.
  • Fagerberg, J., Mowery, D.C., Nelson, R.R. (Eds.), 2005, The Oxford Handbook of Innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
  • Hall, B.H., Rosenberg, N. (Eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Volumes 1 and 2, 2010, North-Holland/Elsevier, Amsterdam (NL) and Oxford (UK).
  • Malerba, F. Brusoni, S. (Eds.), 2007, Perspectives on Innovation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK).
  • Stoneman, P. (Ed.) Handbook of the Economics of Innovation and Technical Change, 1995, Blackwell, Oxford (UK) and Cambridge (MA).

Additional reading are available in the detailed Syllabus in the Download Box.