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GEST-S514

Advanced topics in the economics of innovation

academic year
2025-2026
2026-2027

Course teacher(s)

Elise Petit (Coordinator)

ECTS credits

5

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

This year, the course focuses on health innovation economics: combining economic analysis with the legal and regulatory mechanisms that shape pharmaceutical and medical technology markets. The course is structured as follows:

Part 1: Main lectures

1 - Introduction
What is an innovation ? How is it characterized and measured ? What is the current innovation landscape ?
2 - Economics of innovation 
What are the foundational economic theories around innovation ? Schumpeter, Arrow, Solow, Romer, Aghion
3 - Intellectual Property rights
What can be protected, how, at what cost, where ? What are the main current challenges ?
4 - Health innovations
What are the specificities of health innovations ? What is and is not patentable ? How do patent protections interact with regulatory mechanisms ?

Part 2: Referee report and discussions
Class discussions over recent papers addressing topics introduced in the lectures, structured as a "referee report" type of feedback.
Examples of topics: how health innovations are valued, priced, and reimbursed; how firms use regulatory mechanisms to extend market power; orphan-drug specificities; how firms use patent law to prolong effective monopoly and how competition authorities respond; how AI reshapes the R&D production function or the power dynamics across biotechs and BigPharma; ...

Part 3: Student presentations
Individual presentations on recent working papers addressing one of the topics discussed in the class. It can be applied or theoretical. 

The exact schedule will be set once the class size is fixed.

 

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- characterize innovation, and situate it within the foundational economic theories of innovation and growth
- understand how IP rights are designed, obtained, and enforced
- understand the specificities of health innovations and how they are impact by both IP law and health regulations
- search the academic literature
- critically read and discuss academic papers discussing innovation economics
 

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

Undergraduate courses in microeconomics, industrial organization, and econometrics.

 

Teaching methods and learning activities

Part 1 consists of four main lectures covering the theoretical and institutional foundations of innovation economics. Course slides are posted weekly.
Part 2 consists of class discussions in which active participation and prior reading is required (but selected by the instructor).
Part 3 consists of individual student presentations on academic papers selected by students, in consultation with the instructor.

 

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Communicated weekly in the course slides.

Course notes

  • Université virtuelle

Other information

Contacts

elipetit@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

  • Continuous assessment
  • Oral examination
  • Oral presentation

Continuous assessment

Oral examination

Oral presentation

Individual presentation (referee report style)
Oral exam: open-ended questions

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

The exact weight of each part will be confirmed once class size is fixed.

40% Individual presentation, 40% oral exam, 20% class participation.

Language(s) of evaluation

  • english

Programmes