312001 Innovationsökonomik (V) (WiSe 2025/2026)

The primary objective of this course is to acquaint advanced economics students with the analytical foundations of the economics of innovation. The course develops a rigorous understanding of theoretical models of innovation, with particular emphasis on firms’ incentives to innovate. Core topics include the relationship between innovation incentives and market structure, the distinction between product and process innovations, technological spillovers, research and development (R&D) cooperation, and the economic role of patents.

Preliminary outlook:
• Introduction
• Market structure and innovations
• Product and process innovations
• Technological spillovers
• R&D Cooperation
• Patents

Exams: The course will conclude with a final oral examination. Exact date(s) will be announced later.

Literaturangaben

Selected Papers:
- Dosi, G. (1988): Sources, Procedures and Microeconomic Effects of innovation Journ. of Econ. Literature, XXVI, 1120-1171
- Arrow(1962), Economic welfare and the allocation of the resources for invention, in Nelson, R.R. (ed.) The rate and direction of inventive activity, PUP, 609-627.
- Dasgupta, P and Stiglitz, J. (1980), Industrial Structure and the Nature of Innovative Activity, The Economic Journal, 90, 358, 266-293.
- Lin, P und Saggi, K. (2002), Product differentiation, process R & D, and the nature of market competition, Europ. Econ. Review, 46, 201-211.
- D’Aspremont, C und Jacquemin, A. (1988), Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D in Duopoly with Spillovers, American Econ. Review, 78, 1133-1137.
- Jaffe, A., Trajtenberg, M., Henderson, R. (1993), Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations, Quarterly Journ. of Econ., 108, 577-598.
- Goyal, S. and Joshi, S. (2003), Networks of collaboration in oligopoly, Games and Economic Behavior, 43, 57-85.
- Kamien, M., Muller, E.und Zhang,.I. (1992), Research Joint Ventures and R&D Cartels, American Economic Review, 82, 1293-1306.
- Gilbert, R und Shapiro, C. (1990), “Optimal Patent Length and Breadth”, Rand Journ. of Econ., 21, 106-112.
- Gallini, N.T. (1992), “Patent Policy and Costly Imitation”, Rand Journ. of Econ., 23, 52-63.
- Gallini, N. und Scotchmer, S. (2002), „Intellectual Property: When is it the best incentive System? “, in Jaffe et al. (Eds.), Innovation Policy and the Economy, MIT Press.