Economies are complex and dynamic systems. Innovation and technical change are key drivers of economic change and are both drivers and outcome of a broader process of social and institutional transformation. Innovation does not work in isolation. It emerges from complex ecosystems of markets, productive organisations and institutions. By creating and shaping markets with a variety of industrial and innovation policies, the state plays a key role within these ecosystems. It determines the direction of change. It can also direct innovation with a public purpose. There are several historical cases in which the state has driven innovative economic change and given it a public purpose, as well as cases in which the state has failed to do so in specific policy areas.
The module introduces students to the economics of innovation and technical change, with a focus on theoretical contributions in evolutionary and structural economics – including techno-economic paradigms, and national, regional and sectoral systems of innovations. Students are also encouraged to understand innovation dynamics in different country contexts, and what context-specific factors constraints innovation and the translation of innovation into new markets, products and purposes.
The module will equip students with an understanding of various, interrelated economic policy areas and approaches in the context of innovations and public purpose. You will be introduced to the why, what and how of mission-oriented innovation policy making, placing the innovation process firmly in the context of state action and wider social change. You will explore varieties of industrial and innovation policy models, instruments and institutions across advanced and emerging economies, and focus on the specific challenges of ‘place-based’ industrial and innovation policies. You will be introduced to the economics of innovation but also encouraged to explore the political economy of innovation and industrial development, considering the ways in which powerful actors may impede sustainable innovation, or capture the benefits of innovation in a way not always compatible with the public good.
Assignments & Evaluation The module has two assignments. Your final mark in the module will be based on these two elements: a 2,000-word written submission (70%), and a 15-minute group presentation (30%). All assignments should be submitted via Moodle; for the group presentation, all group members are asked to individually submit the group deck by the deadline. Please note that guidance on style, citations, word counts, and lateness penalties can all be found in the IIPP Writing Guidance note on Moodle. More information, including the marking framework, will also be made available on Moodle.
Key Deadlines
Group presentation (30%) | 15 minutes With your group of four to five people, select two approaches to innovation covered in different lectures and present their similarities, differences and possible synthesis. What are the policy implications of each approach? Assess their validity distinguishing between core and peripheral countries.
Please also include a slide with your bibliography and a description of the role that each member of the team played; you do not need to present these during the 15 minutes. Please be mindful to make an appropriate number of slides for the presentation; additional slides will not be assessed. The presentations will be followed by a brief Q&A with the assessors.
Written submission (70%) | 2,000 words Choose an innovation policy and reassess it under the light of this module’s content. You are expected to present the frameworks and concepts before using them and to include simple descriptive statistics along the lines of those explained during the seminars to further support your arguments.
Adequate referencing is essential in order to identify whether you understood and mobilized the readings of this module for the assignment