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Academic staff (list)

Rainer Kattel

Rainer Kattel is visiting professor in innovation and public governance at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. He is also an Estonian Academy of Sciences research professor at Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia.

He has studied at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and University of Marburg, Germany, in philosophy, political philosophy, classics and public administration.

He led Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance for 10 years, building it into one of the leading innovation and governance schools in the region.

Professor Kattel has also served on various public policy commissions, including the Estonian Research Council and European Science Foundation. He has worked as an expert for the OECD, UNDP and the European Commission. Currently, he leads the Estonian Government’s Gender Equality Council, and is a member of governing boards at Tallinn University of Technology and Estonian Academy of Arts.

He has published extensively on innovation policy, its governance and specific management issues. His recent books include:

  • The Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development (edited with Erik Reinert and Jayati Gosh; Elgar, 2016)
  • Financial Regulations in the European Union (edited with Jan Kregel and Mario Tonveronachi; Routledge, 2016)
  • Innovation Bureaucracy (with Wolfgang Drechsler and Erkki Karo; Yale, forthcoming in 2017)
  • A special section on mission-oriented innovation policy in Industrial and Corporate Change (edited with Mariana Mazzucato).

In 2013, he received Estonia's National Science Award for his work on innovation policy.

Research summary

Professor Kattel’s research focuses on organisational and institutional aspects of innovations and innovation policies.

His forthcoming book with Yale University Press on innovation bureaucracies will be the first book length study of these organisations. It shows how and why organisational issues (such as routines and capacities) are important for the success or failure of innovation policy.

His research on public sector innovations focuses on issues such as legitimacy and trust, key elements of innovative public services that have previously received scant attention. This line of research has also resulted in the first academic study of innovation labs in the public sector.

In innovation policy, he has studied the impact of new public management reforms and European Union architecture on innovation policy-making, as well as policy learning across borders. His paper on public procurement as an industrial policy tool won Best Paper Award at the World Procurement Conference in 2010.

He has also co-edited a key comparative volume on public procurement of innovation and a major volume on alternative economic theories.

Professor Kattel’s most recent research looks at how digital transformation processes influence public value creation.


Carlota Perez

Carlota Perez is honorary professor of technology and development at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Perez studies the socio-economic impact of technical change and the historical context of growth and development.

She is the author of the influential Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: the Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages (Elgar 2002), which focused on the the role that finance plays in the diffusion of technological revolutions.

During her fixed tenure as LSE Centennial Professor (2013-2016), she created the popular departmental course DV446: Technical Change, Paradigm Shifts and Global Development. She remains a Visiting Professor at LSE, is also Professor of Technology and Development at Technological University of Tallinn, and Honorary Professor at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex. She is regularly invited to lecture at universities around the world.

Her career began in civil service, and has spanned academic research, teaching and consultancy. In the late 1970s, she conducted research at Venezuela’s Central University on the structural causes of the energy crisis. She was then a member of a think tank at the Institute of Foreign Trade and became the founding Director of Technological Development at the Ministry of Industry in the 1980s, where she created the first venture capital fund in the country.

She has been a consultant for several Latin American governments and multilateral organisations, such as UNCTAD, UNIDO, CEPAL, the OECD, the Andean Pact and the World Bank. In the mid-1990s, she was an advisor to INTEVEP, the R&D and technology arm of PDVSA, the national oil company in Venezuela.

Since the publication of her book she has frequently been asked to consult for global corporations (including IBM, Cisco, Telefonica, Mondragon, Ericsson, Sogeti and ING Bank) and to speak at major business and public events. From 2015 to 2016 she was the Chair of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Expert Group for Green Growth and Jobs.

She has studied at the University of Paris VII, and San Francisco State University, and has nurtured research links with several European universities.

Her current position as Honorary Professor at SPRU started with a research fellowship in 1983, when she began a long-term collaboration with Professor Chris Freeman. She has been teaching a postgraduate course at the Tallinn University of Technology since 2007 and was affiliated to CERF and Cambridge Finance at the Judge Business School of Cambridge University from 2002 until 2014.

Research summary

As Academic in Residence at the Anthemis Institute, Professor Perez is currently working on her research project ‘Beyond the Technological Revolution’, which analyses the historical role of the state in shaping the context for innovation.

Her areas of research and interest include:

  • The impact of technical change and technological revolutions on society, business and economies
  • Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigm shifts
  • The roles of finance, markets and governments in promoting and propagating innovation
  • The diffusion of technological revolutions and the changing windows of opportunity for developing countries
  • Sustainability – ‘green growth’ – and its potential to serve as a driver of innovation, development and economic revival
  • Conditions for natural resource-based innovation and development strategies
  • Technology and the potential for overcoming inequality

Main publications: journal articles

  • 2015 “Natural Resource Industries as a Platform for the Development of Knowledge Intensive Industries”, with A. Marin and L. Navas-Aleman in Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie (Journal of Economic and Social Geography), Volume 106, Issue 2, 154–168
  • 2013 “Unleashing a golden age after the financial collapse: Drawing lessons from history”, in Environmental Innovations and Societal Transitions, Vol. 80, No. 1, 11–23
  • 2010 “Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 34, No.1, 185-202
  • 2010 “Technological dynamism and social inclusion in Latin America: CEPAL Review No. 100, 121-141. Original Spanish “Dinamismo tecnológico e inclusión social en América Latina: una estrategia de desarrollo productivo basada en los recursos naturales” Revista CEPAL No. 100, April, 123-145.
  • 2009 “La Otra Globalización: los Retos del Colapso Financiero.” [The other Globalisation: the Challenges of the Financial Collapse] Problemas del Desarrollo: Revista Latinoamericana de Economía, (UNAM-México) Vol. 40, No.157, 11-37
  • 2009 “The Double Bubble at the Turn of the Century: Technological Roots and Structural Implications”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol. 33, No. 4, 779-805
  • 2001 "Technological change and opportunities for development as a moving target", Cepal Review, No. 75, December, 109-130
  • 2000 "Change of paradigm in Science and Technology Policy", Cooperation South, TCDC-UNDP, No. 1-2000, 43-48
  • 1986 "Las Nuevas Tecnologías: Una Visión De Conjunto", in Estudios Internacionales, Año XIX, Oct.-Dic. 1986, No.76, Santiago de Chile, 420-459.
  • 1985 "Microelectronics, Long Waves and Technical Change: New Perspectives for Developing Countries”, World Development, Vol. 13, Nº 3, 441-463
  • 1983 "Structural change and assimilation of new technologies in the economic and social systems, Futures, Vol. 15, Nº 4, October, 357-375 and 1985, in Italian translation, in P. Bisogno ed., Paradigmi Tecnologici: Saggi Sull Economia del Progresso Tecnico, Prometheus No. 2, , Milan, 155-186. Reprinted in C. Freeman, ed. The Long Wave in the World Economy, International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, Edward Elgar, Aldershot, 1996.


Main publications: books and book chapters

  • 2016 “The new context for industrializing around natural resources: an opportunity for Latin America (and other resource rich countries)?” in Akbar Noman and Joseph Stiglitz (eds.) Efficiency, Finance and Varieties of Industrial Policy: Guiding Resources, Learning and Technology for Sustained Growth. New York: Columbia University Press
  • 2016 "Capitalism, Technology and a Green Global Golden Age: The Role of History in Helping to Shape the Future" in Mazzucato and Jacobs, Rethinking Capitalism. London: Wiley-Blackwell
  • 2015 "Innovation as Growth Policy: The Challenge for Europe" with Mazzucato, M., in Fagerberg, J., S. Laestadius and B. Martin (eds.) The Triple Challenge for Europe: Economic Development, Climate Change and Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Ch. 9, 227-262; previously published as SPRU Working Paper No. 13-2014, July 2014
  • 2014 "The possible dynamic role of natural resource-based networks in Latin American development strategies". with Marin and Navas-Aleman in Dutrénit and Sutz (eds.) National Innovation Systems, Social Inclusion and Development: The Latin American Experience, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
  • 2014 "A New Age of Technological Progress" in Umunna, C. (ed) Owning the Future, London: Policy Network
  • 2013 “Innovation systems and policy for development in a changing world”, in E, S, Andersen, J. Fagerberg and B. Martin (eds.) The Future of Innovation Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press development in a changing world”, in E, S, Andersen, J. Fagerberg and B. Martin (eds.) Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • 2013 “Financial bubbles, crises and the role of government in unleashing Golden Ages" in Pyka, A. and Burghof, H.P. (eds.) Innovation and Finance. London: Routledge, pp. 11 -25
  • 2007 "Finance and technical change: A long-term view" in H. Hanusch and A. Pyka, eds., The Elgar Companion to Neo-Schumpeterian Economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
  • 2006 “Respecialisation and the deployment of the ICT paradigm: An essay on the present challenges of globalisation” in Compano et al. eds., The Future of the Information Society in Europe, Technical Report EUR22353EN, IPTS, Joint Research Centre, Directorate General, European Commission, pp. 27-56.
  • 2002 Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, U.K. (Paperback 2003, Spanish version Siglo XXI 2004, South Korean edition, IBM, 2006, Chinese edition Renmin University 2007; Russian edition, Delo, 2011)
  • 1992 "New technological model and higher education: A view from the changing world of work", in Gustavo Lopez Ospina ed., Challenges and Options: Specific proposals, CRESALC/UNESCO, pp. 121-145.
  • 1988 "Structural Crises of Adjustment, Business Cycles and Investment Behaviour" (with C. Freeman), in G.Dosi et al. eds. Technical Change and Economic Theory, Francis Pinter, London, pp. 38-66. Reprinted in H. Hanusch ed.The Economic Legacy of Joseph Schumpeter, Elgar, London, 1998
  • 1988 "Catching Up in Technology: entry Barriers and Windows of Opportunity", (with L. Soete), in Dosi et al eds. Technical Change and Economic Theory, Francis Pinter, London, pp. 458-479.
  • 1986 "New Technologies and Development", in Freeman and Lundvall eds. Small Countries facing The Technological Revolution, Francis Pinter, London, UK, pp. 85-97 and 1989, in Italian, as "Nuove tecnologie e sviluppo", en Eugenio Bennedetti ed., Mutazioni tecnologiche e condizionamenti internazionali. FrancoAngeli, Milan, pp. 71-89. Reproduced in L. Mytelka, ed (2007). Innovation and Economic Development, volume 213 in The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics Series, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Part I, chapter 2.

Matteo Deleidi

Matteo Deleidi is a Research Fellow in Finance and Innovation at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), UCL.

Before joining UCL, he was a teaching assistant in macroeconomics at Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy.

Dr Deleidi obtained his PhD in Political Economy in May 2016 at Roma Tre University, where he wrote a doctoral dissertation on the money creation process and the theory of investment, under the supervision of Professor Antonella Stirati.

During his PhD, he was a visiting researcher at the Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. He worked under the supervision of Professor Giuseppe Fontana on the money creation process in the modern economies, combining a theoretical and empirical analysis for European countries.

Research summary

As a part of the DOLFINS Project, Dr Deleidi focuses his research on monetary theory, theories of economic growth and investment determination.

He is currently working on the quantitative easing and transmission mechanism of monetary policy with a focus on the UK.

He is also analysing the effects of monetary and fiscal policies and aggregate demand stimulus on technical progress, investment and GDP growth. His aim is to show how expansionary fiscal policies generate a virtuous circle of economic growth, fostering the development and diffusion of innovation process.

His research interests include technical progress, macroeconomics, monetary economics and theories of growth and distribution.

Key publications

Policy brief

Papers

  • Deleidi, M., 2017. Post Keynesian money endogeneity: a theoretical and empirical investigation on the credit demand schedule. (Accepted with minor revisions in the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics)
  • Deleidi, M., Fontana, G., Money creation in the Eurozone: An empirical assessment of the Endogenous and the Exogenous theories. (Paper presented to the 4th European Conference on Banking and the Economy 2016 and awarded as Best Monetary Paper. Submitted to the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money)
  • Deleidi, M., Paternesi Meloni, W., 2014. Italian economic trends and labour market reforms: a 50-years overview. ASTRIL WP n.12/2014, ISSN 2280–6229 Working Papers online

Douglas Robinson

Dr Douglas KR Robinson is a research fellow of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

Douglas is a researcher and consultant on research and innovation management and policy, with a focus on emerging and potentially breakthrough technologies.

He is currently a research fellow of the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Sociétés (LISIS) in Paris, France.

Douglas has a PhD in Innovation Studies from the University of Twente (NL), a Masters in Space Studies (International Space University, France) and Masters of Physics and Space Technology (University of Leicester, UK).

He has recently written reports for the OECD, NASA, the European Space Agency and the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education.

Douglas also reviews funding proposals for the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) in France and the European Commission H2020 programme. He is a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals including Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Research Policy and the Journal for Responsible Innovation.

Research summary

Douglas’ work with Professor Mazzucato focuses on understanding the emerging industries and markets related to the space sector and how innovation policies can be tailored to maximise positive socio-economic impacts and value-driven growth.

Part of this includes exploring the rapidly evolving industrial dynamics in the space sector and new business models, as well as how innovation ecosystems function (or not). It also involves exploring mission-oriented innovation policy driven by sustainable and fair market creation policies with a view to value-driven growth.

In his current focus on innovation dynamics and policy, he weaves together four axes of research:

  • The dynamics of technology emergence (particularly the collective dimension)
  • Organisational and institutional aspects of transforming promising technologies into markets
  • Future-oriented analyses informed by dynamics of socio-technical change
  • Policy and strategic intelligence on research and innovation

Recent relevant publications

  • Robinson, D. K. R., Antoine Schoen, Philippe Laredo, Jordi Molas Gallart, Philine Warnke, Stefan Kuhlmann, Gonzalo Ordonez Matamoros (Forthcoming) Policy lensing of futures intelligence. Accepted article for Technological Forecasting and Social Change to be published in 2017.
  • Mazzucato, M., & Robinson, D. K. R. (2017). Co-creating and directing Innovation Ecosystems? NASA's changing approach to public-private partnerships in low-earth orbit. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
  • Mazzucato, M. and Robinson D. K. R. (2016) Directing vs. Facilitating the Economic Development of Low Earth Orbit. Chapter 5 in NASA book Besha P. and MacDonald, A. eds (2016) Economic Development of Low-Earth Orbit. NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Communications, Washington, DC 20546.
  • Robinson, D. K., Rip, A., & Delemarle, A. (2016). Nanodistricts: Between Global Nanotechnology Promises and Local Cluster Dynamics. In The Local Configuration of New Research Fields (pp. 117-133). Springer International Publishing.
  • Robinson, D. K. R. (2015). Distinguishing the umbrella promise of Converging Technology from the dynamics of Technology Convergence. In Wienroth, M. and Rodrigues, E. (eds.) Knowing New Biotechnologies: Social Aspects of Technological Convergence, 12. Routledge.
  • Robinson, D. K. R., & Rip, A. (2013). Indications of Socio-Economic Impacts of Nanotechnologies: The Approach of Impact Pathways. In: K. Konrad & H. Van Lente & C. Coenen & A. Dijkstra & C. Milburn (Eds.), Shaping Emerging Technologies: Governance, Innovation, Discourse. IOS Press, pp153 – 166. ISBN 9781614993001.

Victor Roy

Victor Roy is a research fellow of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

Victor is a sociologist and physician-in-training, focused on biomedical innovation and health delivery for vulnerable patients and populations.

His clinical training has taken him from urban Chicago to rural West Bengal, India to the townships of Cape Town, South Africa. As a social scientist, he has researched the political economy of drug development and treatment access through the cases of hepatitis C and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

He is a co-founder and served as Executive Director of GlobeMed, a network of students now at over 50 university campuses partnering with communities around the world to improve health of people living in poverty.

He is currently completing his doctorate in sociology at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge scholar. He is also a Paul and Daisy Soros New American fellow at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Research summary

Victor’s research into the political economy of biomedical innovation investigates the financing, valuation and accessibility of new technologies for health.

He has published on the influence of financialisation in drug pricing and treatment access. He is currently studying the valuation practices used by an array of economic actors in drug development.

Much of this research has focused on new breakthrough medicines for hepatitis C. Victor also explores organisational experiments that aim to bring public health and human rights from the margins to the centre of innovation strategies.

Publications

Laurie Macfarlane

Laurie Macfarlane is a research fellow of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

Laurie is a Senior Economist at the New Economics Foundation, the UK’s leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice.

He is the author of numerous major policy reports outlining proposals for new public banks and greater diversity in retail banking. His current research projects include projects on ways to improve the resilience of the UK’s financial system, and the links between monetary policy, banking and environmental sustainability.

He is the co-author of the book ‘Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing’, which examines the links between the financial system and the UK's dysfunctional housing market. It was described by the Financial Times as “a lucid exposition of the dysfunctional British housing market”, and has received endorsements from Lord Adair Turner, Dame Kate Barker and Ann Pettifor, among many others.

Laurie regularly discusses economic issues in the media, including on Sky News, Channel 4 News, BBC World and BBC Radio 4. He has also written for the Guardian, the Independent and the New Statesman.

He serves on the advisory board of Protect Our Future, an organisation dedicated to promoting sustainable public investment in Scotland. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).

Research summary

At the New Economics Foundation, Laurie’s research focuses on overcoming problems of low public sector support in the provision of long-term ‘patient capital’, and a retail banking sector that is too focused on short-term shareholder returns. This involves developing and promoting policy solutions to help build a more resilient financial system that supports long-term value creation.

He is the author of the report ‘Blueprint for a Scottish National Investment Bank’, which set out detailed proposals for a new public investment bank in Scotland, drawing on academic literature and evidence from other countries.

He has also published proposals for reforming Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) into a public interest bank with regional subsidiaries, and has written widely about the benefits of banking diversity.

He helped to develop the New Economics Foundation’s Financial System Resilience Index, which established a basis for measuring and comparing the resilience of financial systems over time. He will shortly be publishing a new paper examining the potential impact of Brexit on the resilience of the UK’s financial system.

He is also the co-author of a recent paper that developed a modern theory of seigniorage, and examined the economic consequences of the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Related publications (public banking)

Tamsin Murray Leach

Tamsin Murray Leach is a research fellow of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

Tamsin has worked both in the commercial and academic sectors as a writer, editor and researcher.

Prior to this she was a researcher, book editor and project manager in the Global Civil Society unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she holds an MSc (with distinction) in Human Rights. As a journalist, she contributed regularly to the national press.

Research summary

Tamsin is the research officer for Beyond The Technological Revolution, the project led by Carlota Perez, which analyses the historical role of the state in shaping the context for innovation and development.

Her particular research interests include:

  • The changing role of taxation and other constructs of the ‘social compact’ across different techno-economic paradigms
  • Alternative models of taxation for the mitigation of income polarisation and other social inequalities
  • The potential future(s) of the welfare state
  • The role of ‘bottom-up’ politics in the diffusion of technological potential

Gregor Semieniuk

Dr Gregor Semieniuk is a Research Fellow of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

Gregor is a Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University of London. Before joining SOAS, he was a Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) of the University of Sussex, working on the Horizon 2020 project DOLFINS - Distributed Global Financial Systems for Society. A Foreign Fulbright Fellow, Gregor completed his PhD in Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he conducted research on the INET-funded project Growth, Distribution and Stability

Research summary

Gregor’s research focuses on the role of energy in economic activity. First, through the lens of the economics of innovation Gregor analyses how heterogeneous sources of finance, including public ones, influence the direction of innovation in the renewable energy sector. Harnessing increasing availability of transaction-level data for powerplant financing, this research interrogates both how today’s financing decisions influence the path and pace of the energy transition, and the distributional consequences of finance directed towards renewable energy. This is complemented by research on the profitability of innovative companies active in manufacturing renewable energy plant and equipment. Second, through the lens of growth theory Gregor examines the importance of energy in aggregate technical change both at the national and global level. One question to answer is to what extent ‘decoupling’ from energy use has occurred at a global level and is likely to occur in the near future.

Publications