DUMONT Béatrice - Promoting Innovation in the EU (20h)

The course aims at:

• analyzing the economics mechanisms and institutions governing the production, use and diffusion of information and knowledge.
• Assessing the usus and abusus of IPRs.
• questioning the effectiveness of innovation policies and intellectual property rights: What objectives should they pursue and with what types of instruments?

This course is also designed to familiarize the students with a “middle ground” regarding patents. It moves away from a “traditionalist” conception which, by insisting on the incentivizing role of patents, tends to neglect their informational role, especially as a signal. Without contesting the relative disconnect between the upward demography of patents and the significantly more moderate productivity gains, this course proposes an alternative interpretation to that of the “abolitionists.” It suggests that the position of patents within the system of innovation is renewing itself, with the shift toward a more fragmented, more intermediated innovation that is also more open, which guides the contemporary evolution of the most developed economies.

For more information please consult the ECTS card.