In 2012, President Enrique Peña Nieto set the very ambitious goal of increasing Mexico’s investment in Science and Technology from the current 0.4 percent to 1 percent of GDP by the end of his mandate in 2018. This commitment has generated a strong debate on what policies should be adopted to support such an extraordinary effort. In this framework, the question on … [Read more...] about Can Mexico make the leap in Innovation?
Alessandro Maffioli
Alessandro Maffioli es jefe de la División de Efectividad en el Desarrollo de BID Invest. Durante sus varios años de experiencia en el Grupo BID, Alessandro ha coordinado diversos proyectos de evaluación de impacto para el desarrollo agrícola, tecnología e innovación, pequeñas y medianas empresas, y acceso al crédito. Previamente, trabajó durante cinco años en el Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Economías de Transición de la Universidad de Bocconi, donde se especializó en economía de la innovación y economía regional. Alessandro es doctor en economía de producción y desarrollo de la Universidad de Insubria, en Italia.
Innovation policy spillover effects: the unaccounted benefits
Recently the development community has talked a lot about knowledge and innovation as a key priority for the years to come, maybe induced by the lesser relevance that financial support has for many emerging countries. Multilateral and bilateral agencies have suddenly become knowledge banks, global practices, ideas’ generators, developers of innovation ventures, etc. In the … [Read more...] about Innovation policy spillover effects: the unaccounted benefits
Is innovation a threat to employment in Latin America?
Joint blog post with Gustavo Crespi The relationship between innovation and employment has never been an easy one. For a long time innovation was seen as a potential threat to employment and economists got to the point of defining technological unemployment as a disease. The argument was that technological change could create unemployment through the substitution of … [Read more...] about Is innovation a threat to employment in Latin America?
Second-tier development banks: some evidence from Colombia
In an effort to shed some light on the effectiveness of government-owned development Banks, the Institutions for Development Sector (IDS) at the IDB financed two studies on the impact of Bancoldex, the second-tier public development Bank in Colombia. The two studies, which I co-authored with Marcela Meléndez and Marcela Eslava, evaluate the effect of Bancoldex on both firm … [Read more...] about Second-tier development banks: some evidence from Colombia
Evaluating the impact of science, technology and innovation programs: a toolkit
As mentioned in a previous blog by my colleague Pablo Ibarrarán, the Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness of the IDB is publishing impact evaluation guidelines on selected topics and methods. The last publication of this series – Evaluating the Impact of Science, Technology and Innovation Programs: a Methodological (STIP) Toolkit, co-authored by myself, … [Read more...] about Evaluating the impact of science, technology and innovation programs: a toolkit