This seminar provides an overview of the economic market and institutional forces that affect innovation and technological progress. We will also study how innovation and diffusion of technology, in turn, affects the economy, inequality and society more generally. Key topics to be treated include: assessing the role that markets, culture and institutions play in fostering or impeding innovation and growth; studying the economic principles that justify public policy intervention in private R&D markets; and discussing how scientific advances and innovation affect the human capital, health and wellbeing of societies. Applications will be drawn from the basic sciences, space, telecommunications, health, pharmaceutical, energy, and environmental sectors.
