GY482      Half Unit
Masterclass in Innovation Policy

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

A good background in economics, geography, public policy, management, or related fields.

This course bridges theoretical foundations with practical application in the realm of innovation policies, emphasizing both cutting-edge research and practical implementation. Each week, the course focuses on a distinct topic that integrates academic rigor with real-world insights. Half of the sessions are delivered by LSE academics presenting their advanced, policy-focused research, while the remaining sessions feature presentations from distinguished invited speakers representing policy, business, and academia. Topics—varying each year—include Innovation Missions, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Emerging Technologies, Digital Technologies and Remote Work, the Impact of Big Science, Innovation Ecosystems, and Innovation Finance. This balanced approach deepens students' understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of innovation policy while equipping them with the practical skills required to design and implement effective, forward-thinking strategies.

1 hours of lectures in the Spring Term.
15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of workshops in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

The course will offer 10 lectures of 1.5 hours each in the WT. Each of these will be immediately followed by workshops of 1.5 hours each which discuss the lecture material. We have also scheduled an extra session in ST to allow students to ask questions and discuss their summative assessment.

We will build up towards the course assessment gradually – with seminar exercises which mimic lecture questions, and other forms of summative assessment. The aim is to develop student’s abilities gradually. One of our key seminar activities would be the discussion and comparison of potential essay structures.

We would share a detailed reading list with students at the start of the course - this would be updated based on the curriculum of that year.

Core readings would include: 

• Lee, N. (2024). Innovation for the masses: how to share the benefits of the high-tech economy. Univ of California Press.
• Gruber, J., & Johnson, S. (2019). Jump-starting America: How breakthrough science can revive economic growth and the American dream. Hachette UK.
• Bloom, N., Van Reenen, J., & Williams, H. (2019). A toolkit of policies to promote innovation. Journal of economic perspectives, 33(3), 163-184.
• Crescenzi, R., Iammarino, S., Ioramashvili, C., Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Storper, M. (2020). The geography of innovation and development: global spread and local hotspots.
• Breznitz, D. (2007). Innovation and the state: Political choice and strategies for growth in Israel, Taiwan, and Ireland. Yale University Press.

Project (100%, 4000 words)

The assessment would be a policy project. Our students will learn both theoretical and applied material in innovation policy. This project would give them the chance to show this understanding, evaluate existing policy, and create new forms of policy. To do this, they would choose an existing policy document, critically evaluate it on the basis of the existing literature, and identify improvements which could be made.