Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

The course aims to develop a critical knowledge of the fundaments of the economics and policy of knowledge production and distribution with particular emphasis on university research. The course will introduce the student to the principal institutions and policies in the area of research and innovation in the G7 countries and other BRIC countries (depending on the interests of the students). Particular attention will be devoted to the comparative analysis.

The course provides detailed knowledge on the development and implementation of science and technology policies. Students will acquire the needed theoretical and empirical knowledge to critically evaluate market failure situations that would justify the development specific policies. The analysis of the rationale behind policy action and the problems associated to the development and implementation of specific policies will help the students to develop a critical knowledge of the difficulties inherent to the development of science and technology policy.

The course is structured into three main modules. The first presents a brief introduction to the economics of innovation paying particular attention to the concepts of knowledge and information (this topic will be develop in detail in the second semester course of economics of innovation). The second module focuses on the analysis of scientific production and the academic labor market paying particular attention to international mobility. The interaction between science and industrial development and in particular university-industry relationships, academic patenting and other channels of knowledge transfer is examined in the third module. Given the increasing importance of evidence based policy, one or two classes of the course will be devoted the understanding and use of Science and Technology (S&T) Indicators for economic analysis and policy making.

Geuna and F. Rossi (2015), The University and the Economy: Pathways to growth and development, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, [translation with three new chapters of the 2013 book in Italian].

Geuna, (1999), The Economics of Knowledge Production: Funding and the Structure of University Research, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. (Freely available at my home page: http://www.personalweb.unito.it/aldo.geuna/)

Foray (2004), The Economics of Knowledge, MIT press.

Bronwyn H. Hall, ‎Nathan Rosenberg (eds.) (2010) Handbook of the economics of innovation. MIT Press.