The Economics of Knowledge Production

Funding and the Structure of University Research

New Horizons in the Economics of Innovation series

Aldo Geuna, Professor, University of Torino and Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy

This path-breaking book addresses the economics of knowledge in universities and, in particular, asks how the changing structure of university research funding influences research behaviour.

‘As someone working towards improving his understanding of the effects of recent government reforms on Australian higher education, this book expands the range of questions. . .’
– Harry Clarke, The Economic Record

‘. . . the present book is an immensely valuable addition to the literature . . . this book was a delight to read. It both enlightens the reader and raises lots of interesting questions suggesting further research around the main themes. It should be read both by academics like myself, “inside the system”, and by policymakers and officials who influence the functioning of universities without themselves being insiders. As usual, better policy towards the universities is likely to arise from a better understanding of how the system – specifically in regard to research – functions, and this book makes an excellent start in that direction.’
– Paul Hare, The Economic Journal

‘This book takes a fresh and illuminating approach to a subject whose importance for sustaining modern industrial development and improvements in economic welfare over the long run is now widely acknowledged . . . Aldo Geuna’s research findings directly address the increasingly insistent need for greater knowledge about key parts of the knowledge-driven economy. His book therefore will be seen to be of timely importance, no less for its novel extension and empirical application to this subject of the analytical approach associated with the “new economics of science” than for the new substantive findings it contains.’
– From the preface by Paul David, All Souls College, Oxford, UK