Elisa Calza is a PhD fellow at UNU-MERIT.  She holds a MA in Development Economics from the University of Sussex (Falmer, UK), which she obtained after receiving her BSc in Economics and Statistics form Universita’ Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Milan, Italy).

Before joining UNU-MERIT, Elisa worked for almost 5 years as Research Assistant at the Economic Commission of United Nations for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in the Production, Productivity and Management Division (Santiago, Chile). She participated in the realization of various documents on economic development and innovation, structural change, STI and industrial policies, ICT and information society in Latin America and the Caribbean. Between 2012 and 2013, she was also coordinating an IDRC-funded project on governmental open data (Open Data for Development - OD4D). As previous work experience, Elisa was a UN-Volunteer at UNFPA Albania in 2008, after having spent one year as Research Assistant at the Institute for International Politics (ISPI) (Milan, Italy).

Her current research interests focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries. Her doctoral thesis empirically investigates the role and features of innovation and standard certifications on firm-level performance in Viet Nam.  

	Selected publications by Elisa Calza
Articles (journal, professional, popular)
Delera, Michele , Carlo Pietrobelli, Elisa Calza & Alejandro Lavopa, 2022, Does value chain participation facilitate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in developing countries?, World Development, 152, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105788, More information
Calza, Elisa & Micheline Goedhuys, 2021, Just a Piece of Paper? Domestic Standards Certification and Small Firm Growth in Viet Nam, Journal of Development Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2021.1873289, More information
Calza, Elisa, Micheline Goedhuys & Neda Trifković, 2019, Drivers of productivity in Vietnamese SMEs: the role of management standards and innovation, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 28(1), DOI: 10.1080/10438599.2018.1423765, More information
Book chapters
Calza, Elisa & Micheline Goedhuys, 2016, Entrepreneurial heterogeneity and the design of entrepreneurship policies for economic growth and inclusive development, in: Colin C. Williams, Anjula Gurtoo (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies, Routledge, New York and Oxon, More information
Calza, Elisa & M. Cimoli, 2015, Unveiling Innovation Dynamics and Development Processes: A Mexican Perspective, in: Shome, Parthasarathi Sharma, Pooja, Emerging Economies: Food and Energy Security, and Technology and Innovation, Springer India, New Delhi, DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-2101-2_15, More information
Cimoli, M., Gabriel Porcile & Elisa Calza, 2013, Still Blowin’in the Wind: Industrial Policy, Distorted Prices, and Implicit Reciprocity, in: Paus, Eva, Getting Development Right: Structural Transformation, Inclusion, and Sustainability in the Post-Crisis Era, Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, More information
Calza, Elisa, M. Cimoli, Annalisa Primi & Sebastian Rovira, 2012, Creative destruction and recovery in Latin America, in: Deshpande, A. Nurse, K, The Global Economic Crisis and the Developing World: Implications and Prospects for Recovery and Growth, Routledge, New York and Oxon, DOI: 10.4324/9780203119433, More information
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Calza, Elisa, Alejandro Lavopa & Ligia Zagato, 2022, Advanced digital technologies and industrial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: A firm-level perspective, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2022-008
Delera, Michele , Carlo Pietrobelli, Elisa Calza & Alejandro Lavopa, 2020, Does value chain participation facilitate the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in developing countries?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2020-046
Calza, Elisa & Micheline Goedhuys, 2018, Domestic quality certification and growth of Vietnamese MSMEs, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2018-026
Calza, Elisa & Micheline Goedhuys, 2016, Entrepreneurial heterogeneity and the design of entrepreneurship policies for economic growth and inclusive development, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2016-043
External working papers
Calza, Elisa, Micheline Goedhuys & Neda Trifković, 2017, Drivers of productivity in Vietnamese SMEs. The role of management standards and innovation , UNU-WIDER Working Paper 2017/68, More information
Calza, Elisa & Sebastian Rovira, 2011, ICT, organizational change and firm performance: evidence from Argentina, In: ICT in Latin America: microdata analysis. Santiago: ECLAC, 2011. p. 203-237. LC/R. 2172, More information
Briefs
Gault, Fred, Michiko Iizuka, Elisa Calza, Philippe Mawoko & Almamy Konté, 2018, Innovation for Development in West Africa: Challenges for Promoting ST&I Policy, This is the second in a series of workshops on the ‘Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policies for Africa’ (DEIP-Africa), reflecting the great interest of African regions in Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) policies and their social and economic impacts. Representatives of 12 countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in Côte d’Ivoire from 25-29 September 2017 to discuss existing policies and their development, in light of the African Union Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024), and the broader African Union Agenda 2063. This event provided a platform to examine diversity within ECOWAS and common challenges to be met, More information