Economics of innovation and sustainable development

The seminar will guide and train the students towards a successful completion of a MA thesis on

innovation. The scope of the seminar is broad and includes, among other topics:

- The production of scientific and technological knowledge

- The diffusion of innovations

- Innovation and patenting strategies of the firm

- The role of multinational corporations vs the role of start-ups in fostering innovation

- The financing of innovation, including the Venture Capital market

- Sectoral systems of innovations

- The role of science, technology and innovation policy in fostering innovation

- Innovation and sustainable development

The seminar is micro-oriented i.e. it will adopt the perspective of firms and industries. As a rule, the

master thesis is should include an empirical analysis. Datasets that can be used include the firm, patents,

scientific publications, and start-up databases.

The first semester of the seminar will include a mini-lecture giving the students an introduction into

economics of innovation, as well as a presentation of datasets that can be used in the thesis. If necessary

students will supplement their data analytics skills in this part of the seminar. Subsequent semesters will

be dedicated to student presentations, coaching and supervising the students in the process of writing