Teaching

PhD Teaching

Socio-Economic Development (UNU-MERIT, 2022-2023) The course aims to provide a deep understanding of the role of innovation and technological change in driving socio-economic development in the broadest sense. While many academic debates consider it best to analyse developing and developed countries in separate ways, this course argues that because of the many common factors that underlie development, specifically technological change and innovation, the joint perspective adopted in this course offers important lessons. The course covers the following topics:
  • Systems and evolutionary economics
  • Steady state growth and innovation
  • An economic history of technological progress
  • What is (socio)-economic development and how is it linked to innovation and technological change?
  • Innovation and production capabilities
  • Trade, GVCs, FDI and (socio)-economic development
  • Premature deindustrialisation and servicification
  • Technological change, structural change and inequality/inclusion
  • Geography, institutions and development
The Economics of Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT, 2022-2023) The course provides an introduction to the main topics in the economics of innovation with a particular focus on identifying the role of technological change in development and macroeconomics, where macroeconomics is considered in a specific Schumpeterian sense. The course further contrasts the main ideas from Schumpeterian economics to those in the mainstream, thereby underlining the fundamental differences between the two schools in the way they look at what drives economic dynamics. The course covers the following topics:
  • A tale of a (capitalistic) economic system: properties of innovation as an evolutionary process
  • Complex economic systems: evidence and basic principles
  • Technological paradigms, trajectories and regimes
  • Structural Change and Structural Transformation
  • The interactive nature of innovation
  • Global aspects of innovation and technology
  • Climate change
  • Employment and inequality
  • Industrial and innovation policies for sustainable development
Economic Growth and Socio-Economic Development (UNU-MERIT, 2016, 2018-2022) The course provides a broad overview of (macro-) economic development, providing participants with knowledge on three particular dimensions of economic development: the empirical analysis of (country) development experiences; the theory of economic development; and major issues in development economics. The course begins with a discussion of what is meant by economic (and social) development; how we measure economic and social development (including and beyond per capita GDP); and how difficult the process of development is (based upon a discussion of very long-run data and examples of the few countries that have been able to develop in the more recent past). In the introduction we further discuss convergence and divergence and the role of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a means of framing the discussion of development. The remainder of the course is organised around particular determinants of economic development. These include: The deep determinants of development (Geography and Institutions): Technology and innovation; International trade and globalisation; Industry and economic structure; Human Capital; and Social Policy. During the discussion of each of these topics emphasis will be placed on identifying and understanding both relevant development theories and empirical evidence and country experiences. In addition to obtaining an understanding of the major issues of development at the macro-level, the course will therefore also provide a broad overview of different development theories and an understanding of relevant empirical approaches to address the causes of development at the aggregate level. While much of the discussion of these topics will be on economic indicators such as income per capita, time will be spent identifying impacts on broader social indicators of development, most notably inequality and poverty, with the role of policy in influencing these outcomes also introduced. The course covers the following topics:
  • What do we mean by economic development?
  • Growth, inequality and poverty
  • Innovation and technological change in growth and development
  • Industrialisation, structural change and economic development
  • Urbanisation, rural development and the informal economy
  • Globalisation and development
  • Human capital for development
  • The deep determinants of growth and development
Structural Change and Innovation (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Summer School, 2022)This short course considers the complex interactions between structural change and innovation, and how these impact upon economic development more broadly. The first session discusses what is meant by structural change and innovation, before considering the main interactions between technological innovation and structural change and how they link to broader development outcomes. The subsequent four sessions will move beyond this general discussion and consider specific related topics that fall under the heading of innovation and structural change. The four topics that will be considered are as follows:
  1. Premature deindustrialisation – the session will discuss the meaning of premature deindustrialisation (and the associated idea of servicification), before focussing on the causes and consequences of premature deindustrialisation, including the role of and impact on innovation.
    2.
  2. Economic complexity – the session will discuss the recent econophysics literature that has developed indicators of product and economic complexity. After providing a general introduction to these indicators, the session will focus on how these indicators link to the broader literature on structural change.
    3.
  3. Global Value Chains (GVCS) – the session will focus on the role of GVCs in driving structural change by fragmenting industrial production across countries and by reallocating the location of value-added across the value chain, further considering how the positioning of countries within value chains impacts on development outcomes. Finally, the session will discuss the potential role of innovation – and digitalisation in particular – in reshaping GVCs.
    4.
  4. Automation and Structural Change – the session will focus on some of the recent debates on the impact of innovation – and particularly the recent wave of literature on the impacts of automation – on structural change and economic development broadly defined. A major focus of this session will be on the employment impacts of automation, particularly the effects on the composition of employment.
    5.
Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Economy (UNU-MERIT, 2016, 2017)This course provides an introduction to the economics of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and in particular the role of IPRs in the globalised economy. We will begin with a discussion of the different kinds of IPRs, the objectives of and rationale for IPRs, and the current landscape of IPRs. The remainder of the course will concentrate on theoretical and empirical linking IPRs to innovation, technology transfer, and economic growth more broadly. One aspect of this will be to consider the existing evidence examining the impact of IPR protection on innovative activities in both developed and developing countries, before moving on to consider the evidence linking IPRs to the diffusion of technology through channels such as trade, FDI and licensing. Related to this we will consider how IPRs can impact upon development more broadly, discuss the future developments of IPRs and policies to maximise the benefits of IPR protection.
Firms in the Global Economy (UNU-MERIT, 2015, 2016)The development of firm-level datasets in the 1990s has added to our understanding of how firms operate. The data has, in particular, shed light on a number of aspects of firm behaviour in the globalised economy in which we live, related to amongst others: (i) why countries trade; (ii) the mechanisms of adjustment to trade liberalisation; (iii) the winners and losers from trade liberalisation; (iv) the characteristics of trading firms and firms investing abroad; and (v) the relationship between innovation and firms’ trading status. In response to these findings new theories of trade have been developed to explain these findings. In this course we will introduce and discuss the above issues. The course discusses the empirical methods used to address these topics, the methodology and results from studies addressing these issues, and describes how theory has evolved in response to these findings. Topics covered in the course include:
  • Firm heterogeneity and international trade
  • The dynamics of firm-level adjustment to trade liberalisation
  • Multiproduct firms
  • Multinational firms and Foreign Direct Investment
  • Firm organisation and trade
  • Task trade, offshoring and outsourcing
  • Firm innovation and international trade
Options for Quantitative Analysis (UNU-MERIT, 2015, 2016)This course moves beyond the linear regression model to consider alternative models useful for addressing a number of policy related issues, as well as situations when the dependent variable doesn’t take on the more usual continuous form. The course is split into two parts. The first part provides a prelude to the course on Impact Evaluation of Policies and Programmes by looking at the difference between correlation and causality, and by discussing and summarising methods to estimate so-called treatment effects. We will then look in more detail at a couple of methods often used to estimate causal effects – namely Instrumental Variables estimation, Difference-in-Difference estimation and the related Synthetic Control Method. Part 2 of the course considers models that may be useful when the dependent variable isn’t a standard continuous variable. In particular, this part of the course will look at models that can be used when the dependent variable is binary (i.e. the Logit and Probit model) and models that can be used when the dependent variable is discrete, but with more than two options (e.g. Multinomial Logit model). Part 2 of the course will also look at models that can be used when the dependent variable relates to duration, i.e. the time elapsed until an event occurs. Emphasis will be placed on providing an intuitive explanation of the underlying theory, but will concentrate on the practical application of these methods, using Stata to address real world data and policy-relevant issues, and the interpretation of the results.

Master’s Teaching

Managing the Fourth Industrial Revolution (UNU-MERIT, 2019-) New technologies associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) hold out great promise in helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by generating rapid, equitable and sustainable economic growth, by aiding the fight against climate change, and by improving health and education outcomes across the world. In equal measure, the development of this broad set of technologies – that includes 3D printing, nanotechnology, the internet of things, artificial intelligence and robotics, biotechnologies, neurotechnologies, virtual reality, energy capture, and blockchain – raises many economic, societal and ethical concerns. Concerns abound as to whether developing countries will be excluded from sharing the benefits of these technologies, for example, by limiting opportunities to develop through Global Value Chains, and to whether new technologies – and robotisation and artificial intelligence in particular – will deprive millions of their jobs, exacerbating inequality both within and across countries. Ethical issues also play a prominent role in the current debate. As machines make more and more decisions, how do we ensure that these decisions are ethical? These discussions suggest that attempts to maximise the benefits of these new technologies while minimising the social costs will involve a coordinated policy response. This course therefore identifies the opportunities and threats associated with emerging technologies and considers the appropriate policy responses to these new technologies. Week 1 will introduce these new technologies, identify the opportunities and threats from these technologies, and discuss the emerging evidence on their impacts. In Week 2, the course will discuss how innovation policy can be used to encourage the development – and the responsible development – of these new technologies in both the developed and developing world. Week 3 focusses on the impacts of new technologies on the developing world, discussing the role of trade and industrial policy as development tools in the 4IR. Finally, in Week 4 the course concentrates on societal aspects, considering the set of social policies that will provide appropriate protection to individuals and society. A component of this will be to critically examine the recent literature predicting the effects of new technologies on various outcomes. The set of policies considered will relate to the traditional benefits model of linking health care and retirement savings to jobs, to appropriate safety nets that should accompany increased job insecurity, to education and life-long learning, and to potential mechanisms that allow for the benefits of these technologies to be widely shared (e.g. basic income, broad capital ownership).
Trade, FDI and Global Value Chains (UNU-MERIT, 2018-2022)

This course considers the current and future role of emerging markets in the global economy, and the importance of globalisation for the development of emerging markets. The development of a set of emerging economies has, to a large extent, been driven by the current wave of globalisation, characterised by increasing flows of goods, services, capital and people across borders. An important component of this has been the emergence of Global Value Chains (GVCs) that have allowed firms to unbundle production activity, shifting different stages of production to countries with certain advantages (e.g., lower production costs due to lower wages). These changes, driven by the activities of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) based in the developed world, have resulted in a rapid growth of international trade and have allowed emerging markets to develop by positioning themselves within different sectoral value chains, without having to develop the full set of production activities necessary to develop their own industries.

At the same time, development through GVCs presents risks for emerging economies, including the risk that countries become specialised in low-skilled, low value-added activities without the possibility to upgrade. Some emerging markets (e.g., Russia) have specialised in certain stages of the production process (e.g., natural resource extraction) that may be subject to high price volatility, with the downswing in many commodity prices in the early years of the 2010s impacting negatively upon their performance. In other cases (e.g., Bangladesh) development has been based around exploiting a large pool of (often relatively low-skilled) labour within GVCs. For these countries concerns revolve around the increasing automation of (particularly low-skilled) activities, the lack of ‘space’ within this segment of the global economy (e.g., due to the presence of China) to allow further development, and the possibility of increasing protectionism that can limit the extent of GVC activity.

In addition to globalisation being an important driver in the development of emerging markets we increasingly see that such countries are becoming the driving force of the world economy. During the recent financial crisis emerging markets were observed to be more resilient to the downswing in economic activity than were developed countries and were an important component of the recovery. Emerging markets account for over a third of world exports, with this share expanding rapidly in recent years. And, while FDI flows from emerging markets remain small in comparison to those from the developed world they are increasing rapidly, with such flows within Asia and from China to Africa being relatively large.

With these facts in mind, this course considers the three main forces of globalisation relevant for emerging markets – namely international trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and Global Value Chains – and considers their importance for current and future developments in emerging markets, and the importance of emerging markets in the future development of these activities. Given the strong interconnections between trade, FDI and GVC involvement – with FDI from the developed world allowing for the development of GVCs, which in turn generate flows of trade in intermediate and final goods – we will reflect on how these activities interact and the implications for emerging markets (and policy within emerging markets). An important component of the course will be to consider the role for policy in allowing emerging markets to maximise the benefits of globalisation for their development.

Advanced Microeconometrics (University of Vienna, 2014)This course provides an understanding of advanced microeconometric methods and their application. The course develops students understanding of a variety of econometric methods that economists use for empirical microeconomic research. Attention is given to the application of these models to economic data in empirical research in order to illustrate how they can be employed to answer real-world questions of economic interest. After completing the course, the student should have acquired the tools necessary to understand papers and undertake empirical analysis on microeconometric topics. The course should also provide a strong background for students undertaking further graduate study, as well economists looking to answer empirical economic questions in a government agency, international organisation or the private sector. Topics covered include:
  • Introduction (Causal and Noncausal models; Data Structure)
  • Brief Review of Basic Methods (OLS; IV; Hypothesis tests; Specification tests)
  • Estimating Average Treatment Effects (Propensity Score Methods; Matching Methods; Regression Discontinuity)
  • Duration Analysis
  • Limited Dependent Variable Estimation (Binary Models; Multinomial Models)
  • Tobit and Selection Models
  • Models for Count Data
  • Robust Regression Methods
  • Quantile Regression Methods
  • Sampling and Survey Design
Panel Data Econometrics (University of Vienna, 2013-2014)Panel data is a data type which has received gradually increasing interest for empirical analysis in economics. This course deals with the econometric modelling, estimation and testing of relationships for panel data. The course covers econometric theory relevant to panel data, but concentrates on the application of panel data methods to real world data and to address policy-relevant issues. The course covers the following topics:
  • Review of Basic Econometrics
    • Linear Regression Model
    • System of Regression Equations
    • Estimation Methods (OLS, 2SLS, 3SLS)
    • Hypothesis Testing and Inference
  • Linear Panel Data
    • Pooled Regression
    • Fixed Effects Regression
    • Random Effects Regression
    • First Difference Model
    • Model Choice and Misspecification Tests
    • IV and GMM Estimation
  • Dynamic Panel Regression Models
  • Topics in Discrete Choice Analysis with Panel Data
    • Binary Models
    • Multinomial and Ordered Response Models
    • Count Data
  • Multi-equation models for panel data
  • Time-Series Panel Data
    • Unit Root Testing with Panel Data
    • Cointegration Analysis with Panel Data
Applied Econometrics (University of Vienna, 2004, 2007-2013) Time Series Econometrics (University of Vienna, 2007-2012)

Bachelor’s Teaching

Structural Change and Economic Development – Heterodox Perspectives (Maastricht University, 2021)

This course provides an introduction to a coherent list of topics in heterodox economics, centred around the themes of economic growth and development, structural change, technological change and distribution. The course largely deals with macroeconomic debates, focusing on aggregate measures such as GDP, exports, and total employment. Consequently, the emphasis is on entire countries, or sectors within countries, rather than on individuals. The purpose of the course is to show the student that economics can be a pluralist academic discipline, in which original and independent thinking can lead to a variety of views on a particular topic. Thus, the aim of the course is not so much to convince students that one particular point of view is correct, but rather to show that differences of point of view exist in the economics discipline. This also implies that one important view that the course wants to express is that there are no absolute truths in economics. The course also lays a foundation for further exploration into other parts of heterodox economics.

The main topics of the course are the nature of the growth (or development) process, and the comparative growth of nations. Growth is portrayed not only as a quantitative increase of living standards, but also as a process in which deep structural transformation takes place. A growing and developing economic constantly sees its structure evolve in many different ways, and this is a crucial element of growth and development that deserves a central role in our analysis.

Introductory and Intermediate Macroeconomics (University of Nottingham, 1997-2000; University of Vienna, 2000-2008) Introductory Microeconomics (University of Nottingham, 1997-1998)