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2019/2020  KAN-CCMVV1911U  Economics of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

English Title
Economics of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 80
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Anders Sørensen - Department of Economics (ECON)
Main academic disciplines
  • Economics
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 12-02-2019

Relevant links

Learning objectives
  • Explain different innovation based growth models, the micro-foundation of the knowledge production function, and the importance of key assumptions.
  • Understand whether empirical results can be interpreted as causal relationships.
  • Understand the importance of various econometrics concepts that are important for the interpretation of results.
  • Obtain experience on working with data and run regressions
  • Hands on experience with the statistical software package STATA
Course prerequisites
The course requires a basic knowledge of microeconomics and applied econometrics
Examination
Economics of Innovation and Entrepreneurship:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
Assignment type Project
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam Oral Exam
Duration: 20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Preparation time: No preparation
Examiner(s): If it is an internal examination, there will be a second internal examiner at the re-exam. If it is an external examination, there will be an external examiner.
Description of the exam procedure

Students conduct a short empirical project with data of their choice. The project can be based on one of the papers – with available data set – on the reading list, a paper – with available data set – of their own choice or a project conducted on an own-identified data set. In the project students are to show an understanding of the applied methods, discuss the empirical choices and interpret the results appropriartely. The project is written in parallel with the course and is of 10 A4-pages. The project must be submitted at the end of the teaching term.

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The aim of this course is to understand the relationship between innovation and economic growth and the origin of innovation. The course focuses on innovation in a broad sense as innovation is multi-facetted concept and the course will both cover aspects of technological innovation – product and process innovation – and non-technological innovation, e.g., organizational innovation. Moreover, the course will focus on the person characteristics behind inventions. The course will be based on economics and applied econometrics.

 

The course focuses on (a) the economics of new ideas and the micro-foundations of the knowledge production function, (b) artificial intelligence and automation, (c) organizational change and management practices (c) the relationship between ideas and innovation, (d) the characteristics of innovators, and (e) the characteristics of entrepreneurs. In the course, we will work on empirical parts of selected papers using original data and programs.

Description of the teaching methods
The course is composed of lectures.
Feedback during the teaching period
We aim to give constant feedback to students in the form of Q and A in the classroom. We encourage students to ask questions and participate in class discussion. Finally, students can take advantage of office hours.
Student workload
Classes 33 hours
Exam / preparation: 173 hours
Expected literature

Topic

Literature

Ideas, Innovation, and Economic Growth

Jones, Charles I. 2001. Chapter 4 and 5 in Introduction to Economic Growth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

 

Competition and Innovation

Aghion, Philippe, Nicholas Bloom, Richard Blundell, Rachel Griffith, and Peter Howitt. 2005. “Competition and Innovation: An Inverted U-Relationship.” Quarterly Journal of Economics120(2): 701-728. [DATA]

 

AI and Automation

Papers presented at the Economic Policy conference on Automation April 2019/Papers presented at the NBER Conference on the Economics of AI, 2017 and 2018, University of Toronto

Management Practices

Nicholas Bloom and John van Reenen (2007), “Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries” Quarterly Journal of Economics [DATA]

 

Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts and Zichung Jenny Ying (2014), “Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment”, Quarterly Journal of Economics  [DATA]

Ideas and Innovation

Jones, Benjamin F. 2010. “Age and Great Invention.” Review of Economics and Statistics92(1): 1-14.

 

The Characteristics of Innovators

Bell, Alex, Raj Chetty, Xavier Jaravel, Neviana Petkova, and John Van Reenen. 2017. “Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation” The Quarterly Journal of Economics

 

The Characteristics of Entrepreneurship

Ross Levine and Yona Rubinstein (2017), “Smart and Illicit: Who becomes an entrepreneur and do they earn more?”, Quarterly Journal of Economics [DATA]

 

Last updated on 12-02-2019