Abstract

Speaker: Professor Neil Lee

Title: ‘Innovation for all’

Time: 05 March 2025, 18:00-19:30

Location: The Ramsden Room, St Catharine’s College.

The next St Catharine’s Political Economy Seminar will be held on Wednesday, 5 March 2025. Professor Neil Lee will give a talk on ‘Innovation for all’. The seminar will beheld in the Ramsden Room at St Catharine’s College from 6.00-7.30 pm. All are welcome. The seminar series is supported by the Cambridge Journal of Economics and the Economics and Policy Group at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

Talk Overview:

Governments invest vast sums in innovation policy. How can they do so in a way which benefits workers? Based on fieldwork for a new book on innovation and inequality, “Innovation for the masses”, Neil Lee will draw on case studies of policies from countries including Austria, Switzerland, and Taiwan, of where innovation policy has been pro-worker. He will argue that the most successful economies develop diffusive institutions —such as skills systems, translational research institutions, and firm networks— which help ensure innovation can be used by and benefits workers.

Speaker Overview:

Professor Neil Lee is Professor of Economic Geography at the London School Economics. He joined the department in 2013, having previously run a research team in a think-tank. He convenes the Cities, Jobs and Economic Change group in the International Inequalities Institute and is Director of BSc Geography with Economics.

He holds a PhD in Economic Geography from LSE and has held visiting positions at Columbia University, the University of Oxford, Science Po Toulouse, and the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.

His research considers economic development, innovation, public policy, and inequality. Recent studies have included work on institutions and economic development in Africa and China, regional inequality and political polarisation in Europe and the United States, and innovation policy in Kuwait. He is working on a major ESRC funded project constructing new measures of regional inequality. His book on innovation and inclusive growth is published by University of California Press.

He has worked with public and private sector organisations including the World Bank, the OECD , the European Commission, NESTA , the Kuwaiti Government and the UK government.

This talk is part of the St Catharine’s Political Economy Seminar Series series. www.politicaleconomy.group.cam.ac.uk