Prof. Dr. Robin Cowan


Professorial Fellow

Research group(s):
1. Economics of Knowledge and Innovation

Robin Cowan is Professor of the Economics of Technical Change at the  University of Maastricht, and Professor of Management at the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Strasbourg.  He began his official affiliation with  UNU-MERIT in 1997 as a Professorial Fellow.  He is currently the Director of the PhD programme in Econonics, Innovation and Governance for Development and UNU-MERIT. He studied at Queen's  University in Canada and at Stanford University where he received a PhD in  economics and an MA in philosophy.  Robin Cowan was Assistant Professor of  Economics at the University of Western Ontario until 1998.  His current  research includes several topics: the changing economics of knowledge;  social networks and innovation; network structure and network performance; universities and science in emerging economies; interacting agents models.  In  the past he has done consulting research for the OECD on the economics of  standards, the European Commission on innovation policy, and the National  Renewable Energy Laboratory on technological lock-in and renewable energy  technologies. In 2004 he won one of 15 prestigious Chaires d'Excellence of the Ministry of research and Education in France, and in 2013 was made a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. 




Selected publications by Robin Cowan


UNU-MERIT