Insegnamento a.a. 2021-2022

The course covers a set of topics related to the interaction between economic growth and sustainable development, providing both theoretical foundations and empirical evidence. It is structured around five main issues:

1. Measuring growth and (sustainable) development.
2. Perspectives on growth theory – focus on innovation, institutions and industrial policies.
3. Natural resources, growth and development.
4. Greening capitalism across different socio-economic contexts.
5. Eco-innovations and sustainability.

• Define the concepts of economic growth, structural change and sustainable development.
• Illustrate the most relevant approaches to economic growth.
• Recognize the determinants of economic growth, with a specific focus on technology, institutions adn natural resources.
• Identify the role of industrial policies in the process of growth and sustainable development.
• Explain the relationship between economic growth and environmental performance.
• Describe the concept of eco-innovations and their determinants, with a particular emphasis on the role of regulation.

• Measure economic growth and sustainable development.
• Assess the importance of different variables - human capital, investments, natural resources, technology - to the process of growth and development.
• Apply the existing approaches to sustainable development to analyse the greening of capitalism in different contexts.
• Evaluate the degree of disruption of green products, process and organisational innovations.
• Develop an argument on a topic related to the process of sustainable development and sustain the debate in front of an audience.
• Show teamwork abilities, as well as presentation and communication skills.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

The learning experience of this course includes a variegated set of tools, besides traditional lectures.

• First, the students are confronted with a series of incidents concerning the relationship between innovation, economic growth and sustainable development. They are asked to assess the level of economic and green development of different countries and to discuss short readings related to the role of innovation and institutions for growth and sustainable development.
• Second, the students actively participate in a series of debates on four relevant topics - growth vs. development, role of industrial policies for development, curse of natural resources, greening of capitalism. In each debate session, two groups of three people debate on a specific topic (the instructors provide details and readings on this). Each debate include the two groups' presentations and then a coordinated discussion between the groups and between the groups and the audience.
• Third, students have to prepare a final group project, providing a detailed investigation of the process of sustainable development in a specific country. In particular, students have to examine the process of growth and environmentally conscious development, emphasizing the barriers and difficulties encountered by any change on the scale of the new greening trajectory. Both the debates and the final project presentations are used for student assessments and as a basis for class discussion. Students are strongly stimulated to share their perspectives on the different topics, as well as to provide insights and suggestions to other students' views.

For attending students (those attending 75% of classes based on registered attendance), the assessment method includes three components:

1. Debate performance (20%). The debates help students identify common grounds and lines of division within the field of innovation, growth and sustainability, highlighting the complexity of the topics. Students learn how to take side, clarify and develop an intellectual position in relation to a specific topic and learn how to look for relevant data and empirical evidence that supports their view. Furthermore, they have the opportunity to show their communication capabilities in front of an audience.
2. Group project (50%). With the group project, students have to apply the knowledge acquired during the course to discuss and examine the empirical evidence related to a specific topic. Specifically, students are able to apply the existing approaches of innovation and sustainable development to a specific context (country, sector or technology), identifying the role of industrial policies in the process of growth and sustainable development and assessing the importance of different variables - human capital, investments, natural resources, technology - to the process of growth and development. Students have the opportunity to show teamwork abilities, as well as presentation and communication skills.
3. Final individual written exam (30%) consisting of open-end questions that intends to evaluate the students' learning of the most important theoretical approaches to innovation, growth and sustainability, as well as the capability of analysing the empirical evidence and policy implications related to those issues.

For not attending students, the assessment is based entirely on a final written exam of four open-end questions that intends to evaluate the students' learning of the most important theoretical approaches to innovation, growth and sustainability, as well as the capability of analysing the empirical evidence and policy implications related to those issues.

The teaching material includes both lecture notes and the following readings:

• D. ACEMOGLU, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth,  Princeton University Press (chapter 1 (available at http://press.princeton.edu/TOCs/c8764.html).
• R. SOLOW, Perspective on Growth Theory, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994, 8(1), 45-54.
• P.M. ROMERM, The Origins of Endogenous Growth, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994, 8(1), 3-22.
• J. FAGERBERG, Technology and International Differences in Growth Rates, Journal of Economic Literature, 1994, 32(3), pp.1147-1175.
• B. VERSPAGEN, Innovation and Economic Growth, in J. FAGERBERG, D.C. MOWERY, R.R. NELSON, (Eds), The Oxford Handbook Of Innovation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• H.J. BRUTON, A reconsideration of import substitution, Journal of Economic Literature, 1998,  36(2): 903-936.
• H.J. CHANG, Kicking away the ladder: Infant industry promotion in historical perspective. Oxford Development Studies, 2003, 31(1), 21-32.
• M. DI MAIO, Industrial Policies in Developing Countries: History and Perspectives, in M. CIMOLI, G. DOSI, J. STIGLITZ, Industrial policy and development: The political economy of capabilities accumulation. Oxford University Press, 2009.
• D. RODRIK, Industrial policy for the twenty-first century, 2004. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/drodrik/Research%20papers/UNIDOSep.pdf
• R.U. AURES, Sustainability Economics: Where Do We Stand?, Ecological Economics, 2008,  67, 281-310.
• J.D. SANCHS, A. WARNER, The course of natural resources, European Economic Review, 2001, 45, 827-838.
• C. PEREZ, L. SOETE, Catching up in technology: entry barriers and windows of opportunity,  1988, in G.DOSI, et al. (eds.), Technical Change and Economic Theory, London: Francis Pinter, pp. 458-479.
• L. KEUN, F. MALERBA, Catch-up cycles and changes in industrial leadership: Windows of opportunity and responses of firms and countries in the evolution of sectoral systems, Research Policy, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.09.006.
• A. MORRISON, R. RABELLOTTI, Gradual catch up and enduring leadership in the global wine industry, Research Policy, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.09.007.
• C. PEREZ, A. MARIN, NAVAS-ALEMAN, Natural Resource Industries as a Platform for the Development of Knowledge Intensive Industries. Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. Vol 106, Issue 2, p. 154-168, 2015.
• C. PEREZ, Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms. Camb J Econ 2009; 34 (1): 185-202. doi: 10.1093/cje/bep051.
• J.A. MATHEWS, The renewable energies technology surge: A new techno-economic paradigm in the making?, Futures, Volume 46, February 2013, Pages 10-22, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2012.12.001.
• M. MAZZUCATO, The Green Entrepreneurial State. SPRU, University of Sussex WP.
• U. DEWALD, B. TRUFFER, European Planning Studies. 2012, Vol. 20 Issue 3, p397-420. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2012.651803 .  
• P. KARNOE, R. GARUD, Path Creation: Co-creation of Heterogeneous Resources in the Emergence of the Danish Wind Turbine Cluster. European Planning Studies  Vol. 20, Iss. 5, 2012.
• K. RENNINGS, Redefining innovation – eco-innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics, Ecological Economics, 2000, 32, 319-332.
• S. AMBEC, M.A. COHEN, S. ELGIE, P. LANOIE, The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness? Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2013, 7(1), 2-22.

The teaching material includes the course readings (see attending students), lecture notes and a set of additional readings that are defined by the instructors and posted on the Bboard platform at the beginning of the course.