The Microeconomics of Product Innovation

Economics has not given sufficient attention to the microeconomic analysis of innovation and technological change. Counteracting this imbalance, The Microeconomics of Product Innovation considers how the use of economic analysis can guide and inform the search for insight in the generation and adoption of new products synonymously labelled product innovation.

Written in an accessible tone and restricting its analysis to the use of microeconomics, this book encompasses the definition of product innovation. It explores means of measurement and revealed patterns of the extent of product innovation; the economic analysis of the forces driving the demand for, the supply of, and incentives to generate new products; empirical evidence upon the determinants of the extent of product innovation; the diffusion of product innovations; product innovation and firm performance; price measurement under product innovation; product innovation and welfare; and public policy and product innovation.

Paul Stoneman is currently an Emeritus Professor at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK, where he was previously a Research Professor. He was formerly a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He has acted as an advisor to governments and private sector companies on innovation, productivity, and performance. His research interests centre upon the economics of innovation and technical changes, with a special focus on diffusion.

Eleonora Bartoloni is a Senior Researcher at the Lombardy Regional Office of the Italian National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT). She has previously lectured at the University of Parma’s Department of Business and Economics, and has undertaken research and teaching collaborations at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Piacenza.

Maurizio Luigi Baussola is Director of the Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Piacenza, where he was previously Professor of Economic Policy.