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SCience, Innovation, FIrms and markets in a GLObalized World (SCIFI-GLOW)
SCIFI-GLOW is a Collaborative Project supported by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme for Research.
The SCIFI-GLOW collaborative project examines simultaneously the organization of the
'knowledge sector' and the behaviour of firms and markets. Doing so is important for the
following reasons:
1. There is widespread agreement that one should look in an integrated way at the
triangle of higher education, research and innovation.
2. At the level of universities and research institutes, there is growing interest in
the relation between their internal organization (that one can analyze through the
lens of incentive and contract theory), their market environment (that is increasingly
considered by industrial economists) and their performance (measured with increasing
sophistication by researchers in the economics of science). This is even more the case
today that a productive knowledge sector is increasingly considered a strategic asset
for international competitiveness.
3. The same is true for firms in general, with the additional emphasis on
international trade, which is composed in very significant part of intra-firm trade.
This explains the new emphasis in international trade research on the internal
organization of firms, and therefore on the connection between contract theory and
international trade.
4. Finally, while the focus of international trade researchers on inequality of
outcomes, especially in the labour market, is not new, it has increasing importance
given the impact of globalization in raising income inequality and uncertainty.
Actively thinking about these issues in terms of social cohesion is therefore key.
The project achieves this by bringing together two 'communities' of economic researchers: those interested primarily in the research sector and those who look at the effect of globalization in terms of trade flows, the organization of firms and product and labour market outcomes.
SCIFI-GLOW connects research teams with expertise in the following areas:ˇ
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economics of science and innovation
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economics of incentives and contracts
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industrial organization
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international trade
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labour economics
The project will be disaggregated into two main parts. The first one,
which will start immediately, aims at advancing the frontier of knowledge
concerning the production of knowledge in a global world. It will provide evidence
to be used in part 2, which will start shortly after that (and run in parallel for a
major part of this three-year project), which looks at the effect of globalization
on the organization of firms, and in particular on their use of knowledge and the
implications it has on productivity, employment and competitiveness. The goal is to
assess the interactions between science, innovation and production in a unified way.
These two parts will include the following research directions:
The project will be disaggregated into two main parts. The first one, which will start
immediately, aims at advancing the frontier of knowledge concerning the production of
knowledge in a global world. It will provide evidence to be used in part 2, which will
start shortly after that (and run in parallel for a major part of this three-year project),
which looks at the effect of globalization on the organization of firms, and in
particular on their use of knowledge and the implications it has on productivity,
employment and competitiveness. The goal is to assess the interactions between science,
innovation and production in a unified way. These two parts will include the following
research directions:
Part 1: The knowledge sector and the global economy.This first part of
the project will focus more specifically on the production of knowledge. It will not
be limited to universities and research institutes, but when private or public firms
are concerned, the focus will be on their research activities.
Work package 1: The organization of science (and creation of knowledge) in the
new global era. This work package will analyze in particular the productivity of
the science sector, its funding and organization (internally as well as across
institutions, through alliances and networks), and the 'market for scientists'.
Particular attention will be given to the emergence of new science-based industries,
such as biotechnology, tissue engineering and nanotechnology.
Work package 2: Industry-science links. This work package will analyze in particular
this question in the context of innovation by multinationals. It will also consider
the role of university-firm collaborations in international R&D alliances. It will
also analyze industry-science links in terms of local development. And it will
analyze the question of the overall complementarity between basic and applied
research, with the incentives for sharing knowledge in these two environments.
Work package 3: Intellectual property rights and the diffusion of knowledge. This work package will analyze the role of patents, licensing, R&D alliances, Standard Setting Organizations, and scientific communication in the global knowledge society. A specific focus will be put on the interaction between competition law and intellectual property rights. We will study how strategic behaviour in obtaining and defending IPRs are affected by global competition, and how strategic behaviour of this type affects innovation and the diffusion of knowledge in the international arena, in particular through off-shoring.
Part 2: Globalization, Innovation and Firms: How knowledge interacts with
globalization and the organization of the economy.This second part of the
project will look at the 'bigger picture', looking at the overall organization of
firms in the global knowledge economy, as well as its implications on markets and
inequality. Moreover, the discussion will focus on both the impact on trade flows and
the impact from trade flows.
Work package 4: The organization of firms, contracts and markets in the global knowledge
society. This work package will analyze how the organization of firms is currently
changing under globalization, with as implication the trend towards off-shoring of
knowledge-intensive activities. The role of capital markets, entry of new firms and
joint ventures will receive particular attention. The question of interactions between
different 'corporate cultures' will also be analyzed.
Work package 5: Globalization, the labour market and inequality. This work package will
analyze in particular: the interaction between innovation, job creation and job
destruction; the potential risks on job stability linked to multinational employment
compared to 'domestic jobs'; and the 'new international division of labour' in Europe,
and the extent to which job migration towards the East concerns knowledge-intensive
activities. Furthermore, the drivers behind the rising skill premium and the
explosion in CEO pay and how it is related to global trade will be explored as
well.
Work package 6: International trade flows, knowledge creation and diffusion, and
innovation. This work package will analyze in particular the impact of trade
liberalization on the innovation process. While WP4 starts from the internal
organization of firms, this work package will stress the 'discipline' that trade
imposes on firms, both in the manufacturing and the service sectors.
While the project brings together researchers at the frontier of academic knowledge on these topics and is expected to deliver research results that aim at being published in top international journals, they will also be highly policy-relevant. We therefore plan to end the project with a summary and set of policy conclusions on research and innovation in the global knowledge economy. This is in a sense Part 3 of the project, which consists of Work package
| Scientific Coordinator | Institution |
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Mathias Dewatripont |
CEPR: Centre for Economic Policy Research |
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Luc Soete |
UM-Merit: Maastricht University |
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Dalia Marin |
LMU: Universität München |
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André Sapir |
ULB - ECARES: Université Libre de Bruxelles |
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Rene Belderbos |
KULeuven Universite |
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Chiara Criscuolo |
LSE: London School of Economics |
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Thierry Verdier |
PSE: Paris School of Economics |
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Marc Ivaldi |
Fondation JJL TSE: JJL Toulouse School of Economics |
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Javier Ruiz-Castillo |
UC3M: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid |
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László Halpern |
IEHAS: Institute of Economics of Hungarian Academy of Sciences |
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