Course teached as: B016453 - ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION Second Cycle Degree in ECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENT Curriculum DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
Teaching Language
English
Course Content
Digital age. Data, information, knowledge. Technological trajectories and evolutions of techno-economic paradigms.
Different approaches for analysing decision making processes. Morphological dynamics of firms and economic
systems. Dynamics of socio-technical systems. Dynamic capabilities and new business models.
The teacher will provide pdf files of papers published in International Reviews.
Learning Objectives
The course pursues four objectives: 1) to expand the perspective developed during the preceding courses by taking
the innovation processes into account. 2) To look into the analysis of decision processes of economic units by
introducing information and knowledge processes within the economic evaluation. 3) To reinforce the analytical and
theoretical framework by developing the awareness of importance of concepts relating to system thinking. 4) To
foster the acquisition of a set of basic concepts in order to analyse innovation dynamics: taxonomy of innovations;
techno-economic trajectories; complex adaptive systems; analytical and computational devices for representing the
evolution of economies; organizational models such as hyperstructures, global production networks, and so on.
Prerequisites
Previous recommended examinations: Political Economy, International Economy, Econometrics
Teaching Methods
Frontal lectures.
Type of Assessment
Written texts
Course program
Detailed Program: 6 credits exam
The program is based on building blocks, that are of tightly linked concepts. These BB mirror the logical sequence of
the course.
1. Outline of the course: Building Blocks
I. The digital age we are living in: The second economy (Arthur), Ubicomp (ubiquitous computing), “calm
technology” (Weiser, 1991, 1993).
II. The age of the spiritual machine (Kurzweil): what technology is. The starting point: the invention of
invention (Landes, 1998)
III. Technology and the Economy: some stylized facts
IV. Taxonomy of innovations: radical, incremental, modular, architectural
V. Technological paradigms, technological trajectories, techno-economic landscapes
VI. Different approaches to the analysis of production processes. Innovation processes between path
dependence and path creation
VII. Decision making processes: 1) standard mainstream paradigm, 2) Evolutionary approach
VIII. The agents of techno-economic dynamics: individuals, firms, socio-technical systems
IX. Basic concepts for the current Century (I): systems and complex systems
X. Basic concepts for the current Century (II): disruptive technologies, big data and data analytics, augmented
reality, cloud computing. and their consequences for business models
Detailed Program: 9 credits exam (three additional credits program)
Systems thinking
Evolutionary approach to the analysis of socio-economic systems
The E. Ostrom’s approach to socio-ecological systems