Course teached as: B016453 - ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION Second Cycle Degree in ECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENT Curriculum DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
Teaching Language
Economics of Innovation
Course Content
Synthetic Program:
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.
Files and other materials of the course are provided by the teacher. It is composed of papers and essays drawn from international Reviews and Reports by Internaztional Research Centers.
Learning Objectives
The course pursues three 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 thanks to system thinking.
Prerequisites
Previous recommended examinations: Political Economy, International Economy, Econometrics.
Teaching Methods
Frontal lectures and presentations by students.
Type of Assessment
Achievement test: Written test.
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