9 Dicember 2026 – Territorial Drivers of Social Innovation
Presenter: Filippo Berti Mecocci, University of Parma (co-authored with Amir Maghssudipour, and Roberto Dellisanti)
Discussant: tba
Abstract: What territorial conditions enable social innovation? This paper examines whether accumulated technological knowledge, density externalities and public funding help explain social innovation intensity across European regions. Relying on a regional dataset originally assembled from multiple sources and adopting different econometric specifications, findings suggest no significant role for accumulated technological knowledge, while population density is positively associated with social innovation intensity. Public funding also matters, but only in low-density areas.
11 Novembre 2026 – Re-examining the Cost-Employability Link in Higher Education: A Simulation-Based Sensitivity Analysis
Presenter: Rosario Scandurra, Universitat Pompeu Fabra – Barcelona School of Management
Discussant: Kevin Schönholzer, Università della Svizzera Italiana
Abstract: Despite widespread assumptions that higher university costs reflect better graduate outcomes, this study finds consistently weak correlations between university expenditures and employability metrics. Using a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation and global sensitivity analysis, we assess whether various input parameters, including tuition fees, living expenses, housing costs, and different measures of employability, influence the correlation between overall university cost and QS employability ranking. However, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the relationship becomes stronger for Anglophone higher education systems, showing that in highly hierarchical stratified higher education system. The results reveal a correlation ranging between r=-0.03 and r=0.07. Heterogeneity analysis focusing on Anglophone universities report a strong relationship ranging between public funding and employability (r=-0.012) metrics European universities show that a higher share of public funding in university budgets does not immediately translate into better employability outcomes. This suggests that neither increased student expenditures nor greater public intervention guarantees superior graduate labour market performance. Sensitivity analyses, conducted through Random Forest feature importance, Sobol’ variance decomposition, and Simulation Decomposition (SimDec), show that methodological choices in constructing employability metrics, including handling missing data, weighting components, and selecting or excluding indicators, are the primary drivers of almost 70% of the variability in the observed correlation. In contrast, tuition fees, living expenses, housing costs, and public funding levels have minimal impact. The findings challenge common widespread assumptions that resource-intensive education directly translates into better labour market outcomes. The results highlight critical measurement validity issues in university rankings and suggest that higher education employability metrics depend more on methodological choices than substantive differences in educational investment. Current employability metrics may mislead prospective student choice and private and public investment in higher education: a standardization of measurement approaches is strongly needed.
23 September 2026 – Firms’ disclosure of university ties on their website: An explorative analysis of its role for innovation performance
Presenter: Bastian Krieger, ZEW, Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research
Discussant: Bernhard Dachs, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Abstract
This paper explores a novel web-based indicator to examine how firms’ disclosure of university ties on their websites shapes their innovation performance. First, using data from the German Community Innovation Survey 2023 and the Tenders Electronic Daily database, combined with firms’ disclosure of university ties on their website provided by ISTARI.AI, we investigate the indicator’s properties by comparing the most frequently disclosed types of university ties: innovation collaborations, university customers, and employee education, with firms’ survey responses and their procurement contracts. Second, we analyze how website disclosure of university ties relates to firms’ revenues from new or significantly improved products or services, applying Ordinary Least Squares, a Control Function, and a Lewbel Instrumental Variable approach. In sum, the website disclosure of ties with universities is significantly associated with their related survey items and procurement contracts. Moreover, website disclosures show no consistent association with revenues from innovations new-to-the-firm. A consistent statistically significant relationship emerges only for small firms, where website disclosures are associated with higher revenues from market novelties. These findings suggest that our web-based indicator captures ties between firms and universities and that disclosing these ties on firms’ websites may influence the market success of their novel products.
3 June 2026 Research Seminar #57 canceled
12 May 2026 Research Seminar #56 canceled
8 April 2026 – Relatedness, Complexity, and Regional Cohesion in Europe
Presenter: Flávio L. Pinheiro, NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Discussant: tba
Abstract
Here, we use Economic Complexity methods to explore how regional diversification can operate to mitigate or amplify regional inequalities in Europe. Using data on industries, patents, and cohesion funds, we analyze the diversification patterns of 283 regions and 32 European countries over the past 15 years. We show that regions’ ability to enter complex activities is highly dependent on their current economic level (i.e., more developed or lagging). As such, traditional diversification into related activities poses challenges to innovation and cohesion policy, in particular by creating a landscape that, rather than mitigating disparities, amplifies them.
11 March 2026 – Family instability and access to higher education in Europe: what policies help? Evidence from EU-SILC
Presenter: Kristina Lindemann , University of Edinburgh
Discussant: Baranowska-Rataj, Center for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR), Umea University, Sweden
Abstract
Using EU-SILC survey data for 25 European countries, this talk asks whether public policies can reduce gaps in tertiary education linked to family structure. I compare young adults from two-parent families with those whose parents separated and those who lost a parent, and relate these differences to two policy areas: (1) benefits for single parents and (2) financial support for tertiary students. Results from multilevel regression models point to student aid as the key lever: where student support is more generous, the gap for youth from separated families is smaller, especially in low- and middle-SES households.
11 February 2026 – Cap-and-trade policies and regional environmental innovation: evidence from the EU Emissions Trading System
Presenter: Sebastian Losacker, Justus Liebig University Gießen
Discussants: Tim Becke, and Sandro Montresor,
VIDEO AND PRESENTATION (soon available)
21 January 2026 – The WebAI Paradigm of Innovation Research: A Primer
Presenter: Johannes Dahlke, University of Twente
Discussant: Catherine Beaudry, Polytechnique Montreal
VIDEO AND PRESENTATION (soon available)
