Innovation, Diffusion and Transformation Processes

The research group focuses on contemporary socio-economic problems and developments, as well as its causes and consequences.


Research topics:

• the causes and consequences of economic growth, technological and structural change
• the history of economic thought and economic history
• the diffusion of innovations and ideas
• multi-level socio-economic transformation processes
   

Research questions include:

• How do ideas and convictions spread?
• How do economic ideas influence formal and non-formal institutional change?
• What is the long-period background of the evolution of institutions, knowledge/innovation systems and the income distribution?
• What innovative capacity and adoption potential do countries have with regard to general purpose technologies and other forms of technological change?
• What role does the policy framework and institutional setting play in the innovation system?
• What are the socio-economic consequences of (radical) technological change?
• What are the characteristic features and effects of technological transformation and structural change?
• Is technological change influenced by factor prices and how?
• How does technological change influence different regions in a different way?
• What effects can we expect from digitalization and full automation on the labour market and the production system?
   

Methods, tools and approaches:

• explorative approaches
• appreciative theorizing
• computational economics (e.g. agent based economics)
• empirical analysis (e.g. input-output analysis, econometrics, network analysis, specialization and concentration indicators)