RICHARD R. NELSON

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George Blumenthal Professor of International and Public Affairs, Professor of Business and Law

Pagina a cura dello Staff della Fondazione Giannino Bassetti [14 giugno2002]

 

           
Indice della pagina / Index of this page
             
Estratti
Excerpts
in English
Altri URL
Other Urls
in English
             


Biographical History

BA, Oberlin College, 1952 · ·
Ph.D., Yale, 1956 · ·
Assistant Professor, Oberlin, 1956-1957 · ·
Economist, The Rand Corporation,
1957-1960, 1963-1968 · ·
Associate Professor, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1960-1961 · ·
Senior Member, Council of Economic Advisors, 1961-1963 · ·
Professor, Yale, 1968-1986 · ·
Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, 1981-1986 · ·
George Blumenthal Professor of International
and Public Affairs · ·
Professor of Business and Law alla Columbia University · ·
Author

· · An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
· · Technology, institutions, and innovation systems
· · The Nature and Dynamics of Organizational Capabilities
· · The Sources of Industrial Leadership
· · The Sources of Economic Growth
· · National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis
· · Understanding Technology as an Evolutionary Process
· · On the nature and evolution of human know-how
· · Making sense of institutions as a factor shaping economic performance
· · 'Selection criteria and selection processes in cultural evolution theories'
· · The Moon and the Ghetto. An Essay on Policy Analysis
· · Technology, Economic Growth, and Public Policy

 

INTRODUZIONE

 

 
Richard Nelson (George Blumenthal Professor di International and Public Affairs e professore di Business and Law alla Columbia University, in precedenza professore di Economics e direttore dell'Institution for Social Policy alla Yale University) è uno dei più importanti studiosi della crescita economica, della innovazione tecnologica e della evoluzione industriale.

Nelson ha focalizzato il suo lavoro sulla complessità e varietà dei meccanismi economici ed istituzionali che stanno alla base dei processi innovativi e del loro impatto sulla crescita delle imprese e dei paesi. Ad esempio, Nelson ha discusso le relazioni di complementarietà ma anche le tensioni tra ricerca pubblica e ricerca privata; il ruolo differenziato che i brevetti svolgono in diversi settori, tecnologie e nei sistemi di ricerca pubblica e privata; i fattori che possono spiegare perchè l'innovazione è particolarmente rapida ed intensa in alcuni ambiti della conoscenza mentre in altri campi il progresso è molto più lento.

Soprattutto, Nelson ha proposto e sviluppato --insieme a Sidney Winter-- un approccio radicalmente nuovo per lo studio dell'economia dell'impresa, dell'economia industriale e della crescita economica. Ricollegandosi a Schumpeter, la "teoria evolutiva" pone al centro della propria attenzione i fenomeni di cambiamento ed evoluzione dei sistemi economici, in condizioni di disequilibrio e con agenti che dispongono di limitate capacità di comprendere a fondo il mondo nel quale essi agiscono. La dinamica economica è quindi interpretata come un processo evolutivo, guidato da processi di apprendimento e costruzione di competenze da un lato e da meccanismi di selezione economici, politici ed istituzionali dall'altro, dove esistono sempre opportunità di miglioramento e cambiamento, ma solo raramente soluzioni univocamente ottimali.

E' in questo quadro di pensiero che la Fondazione Bassetti ha ritenuto l'approccio di Nelson pertinente rispetto alla questione della responsabilità nell'innovazione, in un orizzonte dello sviluppo scientifico, economico e tecnologico caratterizzato da forti elementi di incertezza e quindi di rischio, questione che costituisce il tema di base della Fondazione.


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GLI INCONTRI DI MILANO





   
Speech
"University and Innovation"
17 giugno 2002 ore 18.30 aula 3
Velodromo Bocconi
Piazza Sraffa 13, Milano
Lecture
"Why has the advance of human know-how been
so uneven across technologies,
industries and scientific fields?
"
18 giugno 2002 ore 11.00 aula 204
Università Bocconi
Via Sarfatti 25, Milano
   

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NOTE BIOGRAFICHE -- BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

 


Richard R. Nelson is an economist by training. Over his outstanding career he has taught at Oberlin College, Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University, and Columbia University, where he now is George Blumenthal Professor of International and Public Affairs and Professor of Business and Law. He also has served as research economist and analyst at the Rand Corporation, and at the President's Council of Economic Advisors. His central interests have been in long-run economic change. Much of his research has been directed toward understanding technological change, how
economic institutions and public policies influence the evolution of technology and innovation, and how technological change in turn induces institutional and economic change more broadly.
His work has been both empirical and theoretical. Along with Sidney Winter, he has pioneered in developing a formal evolutional theory of economic change. Their joint book "An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change" is widely recognized as a landmark in this field.
Over the course of his career, he has been particularly attracted to working with and coordinating relatively large research teams. His "National Innovation Systems project" involved a team of approximately twenty scholars, and his recent study on The Sources of Industrial Leadership involved the coordination of a similar-size group. He was director of the Institute for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, and has directed Columbia's Public Policy Doctoral Consortium.

Excerpts from the site of The Columbia University

«The study of public policy has been a traditional area of interest among Columbia's most influential scholars --flourishing within many graduate and professional schools and departments. But until this year, there has been no University-wide structure to unite faculty and students interested in this area.
The creation of the Public Policy Consortium by the Provost's Office is an effort to bridge this gap by bringing together Columbia faculty and graduate students who are studying public policy problems, and other scholars who wish to do so. Richard Nelson, the George Blumenthal Professor of International and Public Affairs, has been appointed the first director of the Consortium (...)»

Nelson, whose own research has impact across the disciplines of economics, sociology, political science, business and law, said the Consortium's aim is to provide «a loose structure within which the diverse Columbia community interested in public policy issues can work together on matters of common interest, without being forced into a common mold.»

     

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BIBLIOGRAFIA

 

BIBLIOGRAFIA RAGIONATA
   
   

La ricerca di Richard R. Nelson si concentra sui processi di cambiamento economico di lungo periodo, con particolare riferimento alle questioni dell'avanzamento tecnologico e dell'evoluzione delle istituzioni economiche. Il suo lavoro, che lo ha reso uno dei più stimati studiosi del mutamento tecnico, tocca numerose tematiche (l'organizzazione industriale organization, lo scambio, lo sviluppo). Il suo An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change [sul sito di Amazon] (scritto assieme a Sidney Winter, Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1985) (indice e 17 pagine on line [sul sito di Amazon] in English), è oggi visto come il lavoro fondamentale per lo sviluppo dell'ambito disciplinare noto come 'evolutionary economics'. Qui di seguito elenchiamo e presentiamo brevemente i lavori più importanti del professor Nelson, collegando a ciascuno di essi gli indirizzi web dove è possibile reperire informazioni aggiuntive.

Technology, institutions, and innovation systems [sul sito di Elsevier] (con K. Nelson), "Research Policy", February 2002, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 265-272.
L'articolo passa in rassegna i più recenti tentativi di creare un interscambio tra gli studiosi di progresso tecnologico e gli studiosi delle scienze cognitive.

The Nature and Dynamics of Organizational Capabilities [sul sito di Amazon] (curato con Giovanni Dosi e Sidney G. Winter), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Si tratta di un libro dedicato all'analisi della natura delle organizational capabilities: come le organizzazioni agiscono, come utilizzano la propria base conoscitiva e come diffondono questa conoscenza in un contesto competitivo.

The Sources of Industrial Leadership, David C. Mowery (Editor), Richard R. Nelson (Editor), [sul sito di Amazon]
(leggi la presentazione in English) (indice e 26 pagine on line in English)

The Sources of Industrial Leadership, saggio pubblicato su "De Economist", March 1999, vol. 147, no. 1, pp. 1-18.
Il saggio è dedicato all'evoluzione di sette industrie high-tech allo scopo di identificare i fattori chiave che hanno determinato l'emergere della leadership industriale.
(leggi la presentazione in English)

The Sources of Economic Growth [sul sito di Amazon], Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1996.
La tesi sostenuta da Nelson è che la vera forza trainante che sta dietro la crescita economica è il progresso tecnologico, inteso come processo evolutivo che dipende da una selezione ex post più che da un calcolo ex ante. È per questo motivo che questo processo avanza molto più rapidamente in un contesto competitivo che non in regime di monopolio o oligopolio. Nelson sottolinea, inoltre, il ruolo fondamentale delle istituzioni e analizza il legame che sussiste tra politiche governative, mondo scientifico e crescita tecnologica.
(leggi la presentazione in English) (indice e 10 pagine on line in English)


National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis [sul sito di Amazon] (curatore), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993.
Il libro consiste in un'analisi comparata di diciassette diversi sistemi nazionali e attribuisce a tali sistemi un ruolo fondamentale per la creazione di innovazione tecnologica.
(leggi la presentazione in English) (indice e 28 pagine on line in English)

Understanding Technology as an Evolutionary Process, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1987; trad. it. Il progresso tecnico come processo evolutivo, a cura di Claudio Piga, Milano, Giuffré, 1995.
Il testo spiega come la conoscenza tecnologica, da bene privato, possa diventare uno strumento di efficacia pubblica. Tra le condizioni che determinano la crescita dell'impresa innovativa, secondo Nelson, vi è che l'investimento deve dare vita a qualcosa di significativo. L'innovazione, sia essa di prodotto o di processo, ha, dunque, una natura squisitamente privata. Seguendo Schumpeter, Nelson ritiene che i guadagni dovuti all'innovazione sono da intendersi come delle "quasi-rendite dovute al monopolio temporaneo reso possibile dall'introduzione del nuovo prodotto o processo". Tuttavia, "quando si considera la tecnologia, o parti di essa, emergono delle proprietà che ne evidenziano le sue intrinseche caratteristiche di 'bene pubblico'". Pertanto, "quando si tenta di mantenere 'privato' ciò che intrinsecamente è un pubblico, si va incontro a perdite d'efficienza di vario tipo".

 

Altri lavori di Richard R. Nelson

On the nature and evolution of human know-how [sul sito di Elsevier] (con K. Nelson), "Research Policy", July 2002, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 719-733.

Making sense of institutions as a factor shaping economic performance [sul sito di Elsevier] (con B.N. Sampat) "Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization", January 2001, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 31-54.
(on line si può trovare una versione precedente [documento in formato PDF sul sito della School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA)])

'Selection criteria and selection processes in cultural evolution theories', in Ziman, Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 66-74.

The Moon and the Ghetto. An Essay on Policy Analysis [sul sito di Amazon], New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1977.

Technology, Economic Growth, and Public Policy [sul sito di Elsevier], Washington, The Brooking Institutions, 1967

   

Inoltre, sul Web sono presenti informazioni e estratti relativi ai seguenti testi


Technology, Learning, and Innovation : Experiences of Newly Industrializing Economies
by Linsu Kim, Richard R. Nelson, Cambridge Univ Pr (July 2000)
(leggi la presentazione in English) (indice e 23 pagine on line in English)

Techno-Nationalism and Techno-Globalism : Conflict and Cooperation (Integrating National Economies : Promise and Pitfalls)
by Sylvia Ostry, Richard R. Nelson (Contributor), The Brookings Institution (February 1995)
(leggi la presentazione in English)

Technological Innovation and Economic Performance
by Benn Steil (Editor), David G. Victor (Editor), Richard R. Nelson (Editor), Richard N. Foster (Preface),
Princeton Univ Pr (January 2002)
(leggi la presentazione in English)


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ESTRATTI -- EXCERPTS

 

Excerpts from an introductory address made by
Sidney Winter: "The Evolution of Dick Nelson"
October 13 2000, Conference Honouring Professor Richard Nelson, New York.

Richard Nelson's "An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change" co-authored with Sidney Winter is regarded by many as the key work in the development of the sub-discipline known as evolutionary economics. In a conference honouring Professor Richard Nelson, Sidney Winter describes how he and Nelson "got onto" the evolutionary approach.
«... At some point, Dick or I or both of us came up with a typical kind of scholarly conceit, which was the idea that if we really understood the theoretical problem of characterising a single simple technology we would be a long way down the road toward understanding that problem in general... The simple technology that somehow became the focus for the discussion was baking a cake...» This line of thinking led to the "cake paradigm" first published in "Technology, Economic Growth and Public Policy" (Nelson, Peck and Kalachek, Brookings, 1967): "Generally, a technique or technology is not describable by a unique routine; usually there are options in the program. These options permit some choice of inputs and input proportions (a recipe may work with either whole or powdered eggs) and some flexibility with respect to operations (the eggs may be added before or after the sugar). The operations may be performed in different ways; for example, different degrees of mechanisation may be employed (the mix may be beaten with a spoon, a hand beater or an electric beater)..."
The cake paradigm has been something of a constant in Dick's intellectual trajectory».
According to Winter «... One of the ideas that we promote as evolutionary economists is the value of trying to identify the persistent traits of business firms, particularly the traits that underline long records of success, or that particularly define the relationship of the firm to its niche in the economic system».
He uses this same sort of analysis to understand the key patterns that underlie Nelson's successful scholarly career: «The first trait is a probing, playful mind... Dick Nelson with an idea is like a puppy with a favourite toy. He will sniff it and chew on it. He will pick it up in his teeth and give it a good shake to see what it is made of...»
The second trait Winter describes is «... Dick's seemingly inexhaustible fund of time and energy to engage other peoples' work and comment seriously on it. How many acknowledgement footnotes are there that mention the helpful comments of Dick Nelson? They are like stars in the sky...».
The third trait is «Dick's seemingly inexhaustible patience with the meandering frustrating discussion that typically takes place when people with different perspectives and enthusiasms are just learning to talk to each other... Dick goes to a lot of trouble to convene such discussions».
Finally Winter talks of Nelson's «moderation, his sophisticated sense of balance. On questions of public policy as on questions of economic doctrine, you will rarely find Dick uninformed about the arguments offered for positions contrary to his own.»

   
Excerpts from a short talk made by Richard Nelson
at The Institute for Applied Economics and the Study of Business Enterprise,
Johns Hopkins University, 2001


Session 1: Evolutionary Economics - The State of Science

Nelson talks of what motivated him to develop the notion of "Evolutionary Economics" - «My stimulus... was very much to get economics back on the track of focusing on the processes that were involved in long run economic change... Last summer I picked up an old book by Nathan Rosenberg on aspects of the history of economic thought and found there a wonderful set of quotes (Bernard de) Mandeville, writing at the end of the 17th century. Long before Smith or Darwin, described the great technological creation of his ear, the modern warship and commented that the design was a result of generations and generations of incremental changes that led to this technological marvel, which nobody could have planned».
Nelson cites his own personal reasons for developing the evolutionary approach were «... my interests in economic growth, which went back to the days when I was a graduate student. And very quickly my explanations of economic growth led me into trying to understand the processes of technical change. Sid Winter was very much interested in firms and other types of organisations, as well as whether the intellectual proposition that only relatively profitable firms are going to be able to survive was sufficient to justify neo-classical theory. He argued that it wasn't.
In any case, if your argument for why firms are the way they are, and your explanation for the distribution of the firms that you see surviving, is basically evolutionary in nature, why not develop and express the evolutionary dynamic of the processes and units involved...». He concludes «... what was driving us was our interest in helping to develop an analytic framework that was helpful in empirical work dealing with the phenomena involved in technological, firm and industrial change.»

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ALTRI URL -- OTHER URLs

 

Ulteriori informazioni su Richard R. Nelson

DRUID conference

 

Biography, Curriculum Vitae, Research Interest, Books and Papers
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cppc/faculty/nelson_bio.html

"Bush Conference" (Bush Legacy, Bush Report e Bush Model)
Center of Science, Policy, & Outcomes: Science the Endless Frontier 1945-1995
Learning from the Past, Designing for the Future
http://www.cspo.org/products/conferences/bush/parttwo/ (html & pdf)

DRUID's Nelson and Winter Conference, June 2001. «It is now almost 20 years since Dick Nelson and Sid Winter published their seminal book "An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change". In this occasion DRUID, in collaboration with the journals Research Policy and Industrial and Corporate Change, organised the Nelson and Winter Conference that took place on June 12-15, 2001 in Aalborg, Denmark. There were 250 participants and 170 papers. The papers are presented in the Book of Abstracts and were available on the Conference CD-ROM as well as on this website.»
http://www.druid.dk/conferences/nw/ (DRUID is "Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics")

Book description of "The sources of economic growth" (in the Harvard University Press)
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/NELSOU.html


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Pagina a cura dello Staff della Fondazione Giannino Bassetti [14 giugno2002]

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