CSES Seminars 2010

UPCOMING SEMINARS

TIME: August 11th, 1-2pm, Room 10.48, 300 Flinders Street.
PRESENTER: Dr. Alex English (and Prof. Peter Sheehan), CSES
TITLE: China's Transition to a Low Carbon Economy: Economic Structure, Energy, Emissions and Innovation

TIME: August 18th, 1-2pm, Room 10.48, 300 Flinders Street.
PRESENTER: Dr. Brantley Liddle, CSES
TITLE: Forthcoming

TIME: August 25th, 1-2pm, Room 10.48, 300 Flinders Street.
PRESENTER: Associate Professor Danny Ben-Moshe and Dr. Joanne Pyke, CSES
TITLE: Researching Diasporas in Australia

28 July 2010
TITLE:  Democracy and Growth
PRESENTER:  Professor Tran Van Hoa

Synopsis: Democracy or political freedom and its positive impact on economic growth or well-being are the central theme in political economy and the foundation for wars and peace, regional security, colonisation and globalisation. There is still no consensus on this nexus in rigorous empirical studies. The paper introduces a new enquiry approach, and using global data, to provide more definitive findings on this nexus for effective policy uses in a growing globalised world where disparity in Schumpeterian developmental stages, living standards, poverty incidence, income inequality, openness, geo-economic influences, and political regimes is ever present.

Tran Van Hoa is Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies (Victoria University, Melbourne) and Director, Vietnam and ASEAN+3 Research Program (CSES). He is also Honorary Professor, National Advanced Training Institute (NATI), Vietnam Ministry of Trade; and Honorary Professor, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam. Tran Van Hoa has wide experience and extensive record in research, teaching, training, consulting and publications.  His current interests cover Asian economic development and growth, Asian economic and financial crisis and management, trade and investment in Asian economies, international business development and promotion in Asia, Asian transition economies, competition policy and e-commerce in Asia, modelling and forecasting Asian economies, Vietnam, ASEAN, ASEAN+3, ASEAN+6, APEC and WTO.

14 July 2010
TITLE:  Regional Systems of Innovation in Australia and How to Measure Them
PRESENTER:  Dr Dana Nicolau

Synopsis: Since the early literature on national systems of innovation in the late 1980s and early 1990s the idea of applying similar conceptual approaches to regions has been very appealing and it led to the proliferation of similar analyses on regional systems of innovation (RIS). Generally the rationale for a RIS stems from the existence of technological trajectories that are based on sticky knowledge and localised learning.  For a while economists have focused on comparative advantage ignoring more or less the role of policies.  In the past decade or so the idea of constructed advantage gained in importance and regional development is seen as the result of interfacing developments in various directions. This seminar presents a picture of the dynamic environment in which innovation appears and spreads and introduces a framework for quantitative analysis of RIS in Western Australia.

Dana Nicolau has worked in CSES for 8 years. She is a specialist in S&T policy and she has participated in projects about technological development with a focus on high technologies such as Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Spatial Information.  She is presently working on a project about measurement of RIS in Australia.

28 April 2010
TITLE:  Has Medical Innovation Reduced Cancer Mortality?
PRESENTER:  Professor Frank R. Lichtenberg, Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business, Columbia University, New York

Synopsis: Cancer mortality rates have declined significantly in both the US and Australia in the last 15 years. Professor Lichtenberg’s econometric analysis, which is based on extensive data on treatments given to large numbers of patients with different types of cancer since the early 1990s, indicates that two important types of medical innovation—diagnostic imaging innovation and pharmaceutical innovation—account for much of the decline in cancer mortality rates. His estimates indicate that life expectancy at birth of the entire US population was increased by almost three months between 1996 and 2006 by the combined effects of cancer imaging and cancer drug innovation. This evidence contradicts the widely-held view that “the effect of new treatments for cancer on mortality has been largely disappointing.

Frank R. Lichtenberg is Courtney C. Brown Professor of Business at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University. He received a BA with Honors in History from the University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lichtenberg previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as serving as an expert for the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and state Attorneys General. He has worked for several U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Census Bureau. Professor Lichtenberg’s research has examined how the introduction of new technology arising from research and development affects the productivity of companies, industries and nations. His recent studies have focused on the impact of medical innovation on longevity.

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