The Department of Human Capital and Innovation focuses on the following:
Educational systems generate the knowledge base for a well-educated workforce that will bring about future innovations. Together, education and innovation are key factors for economic growth and social cohesion in the era of globalisation. The accumulation of human capital and the generation of knowledge as well as innovation and the dynamic structural change made possible by it are of decisive importance for a modern economy’s position in global competition and its long-term growth prospects. Only superior knowledge will allow a country to prevail amidst world-wide, low-wage competition. For this reason the department is engaged in the analysis of growth-theory relationships below the macro level, like the microeconomic causes of education and innovation, structural change among sectors and the diffusion of new technologies. By examining how policy measures influence an economy’s human capital development and innovativeness, the department explores policy approaches for an improvement of allocative efficiency and just distribution and a dynamic, globalised framework.
In the areas of the formation of skills and knowledge, the department examines the institutional efficiency of the educational system, equal opportunity in education and the relative importance of basic competencies and specific knowledge. Several studies of the department, which have been conducted on the basis of comprehensive data sets of various comparable international pupil performance tests, provide mico-economic evidence on the most important determinants of pupil performance that serve as the basis for policy recommendations.
Another focus is the research on the consequences of international differences in pupil performance for economic growth and social cohesion. In combination with research projects on the importance of education for historical development processes, a leading international centre for the empirical research into the importance of education for long-term economic development processes is to be established. In addition, the department is responsible for the co-ordination of the European Expert Network on Education Economics, EENEE, an expert pool financed by the European Commission.
At the interface of educational and innovation research, the importance of education for innovation and its implementation, the development of entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurship and skill-specific technological progress are examined.
Research in the department’s second main area focuses on the economics of innovations and patents. The department conducts micro-econometric research into determinants and effects of innovation, utilising the unique panel data set provided by the Ifo Innovation Survey, which has documented innovation activity of businesses in the manufacturing industry in Germany for 30 years. This enables, for example, an estimation of the effects of innovations on productivity and employment, which in turn influence the future development of growth and social cohesion. In addition, with the help of the Ifo Innovation Survey, the political and corporate causes of innovation activity can be evaluated.
Another research area deals with the economics of the information society and of innovation in network industries such as telecommunications. Here, the importance of information and communication networks is examined with regard to economic growth. Also, regulation policies are evaluated in the context of rapidly unfolding technological change.
Finally, the department deals with the importance of industrial-policy assistance for an economy’s innovativeness. Industrial champions and enterprises are examined in connection with their importance for the innovativeness of an economy. In the latter two areas as well as in the use of the Ifo Innovation Survey, the department cooperates closely with the Ifo department for Industrial Organisation and New Technologies.
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