Richard Nelson’s legacy for the Economics of Innovation and IP
February 18, 2025
February 18, 2025 ・ minutes reading time
An inspiring academic and mentor
Throughout his prolific career, Richard R. Nelson has inspired countless colleagues interested in understanding innovation from the fields of economics, management, and many other social sciences around the world. Thanks to his warm and kind personality, most of them have become his closest friends and colleagues. His coauthors, peers and students have countless of wholehearted anecdotes where Richard “Dick” Nelson inevitably appears as a sharp economist, a kind mentor, and a witty friend.
As a way to honor and remember his great legacy, WIPO’s team of Innovation economists collected messages from some of his most influential and close colleagues:
Richard Nelson’s major influences on WIPO’s economic work
Professor Nelson has made countless contributions to innovation field, making his texts essential for anyone interested in innovation and technological change. Among the several topics contained in the fruitful research agenda that Nelson develops throughout his distinguished career, we would like to focus on the concept of national systems of innovation developed in his edition of the book “National innovation systems: a comparative analysis”. From this book, Nelson highlights the development of technological change includes different fields of sciences and that its advance depends on trial, error and learning and that innovation process takes place within a framework composed by institutions, such as governments and universities, identifying certain differences on how these systems are formed depending on the sector and the country.
Understanding the innovation process has been a key aspect of WIPO’s World IP Report series, which aligns with Nelson’s approach to the concept of innovation. As a result, a substantial proportion of our work references Prof. Nelson academic contributions , underscoring his significant influence within the field.
Nelson’s influential research shed light on how:
- Functioning innovation ecosystems are more likely to generate new technologies and benefit from exposure to foreign ones.
- High rates of investment are insufficient for a rapid economic growth, unless the economies learn how to use new technologies effectively.
- Governments are often the main supply of new scientific knowledge and the main demand for innovative technologies in given strategic industries like defense or health.
- Companies use their existing capabilities and knowledge as a springboard for new ventures. There is a cumulative nature of knowledge that are reflected in the abilities and routines that individuals and firms develop.
Nelson’s generosity extends to sharing his insight, ideas, and comments as an external reviewer for the World Intellectual Property Report 2022: The Direction of Innovation.
Richard R. Nelson (1930-2025)
Richard R. Nelson was George Blumenthal Professor Emeritus of International and Public Affairs, Business, and Law, and the director of the Program on Science, Technology and Global Development at Columbia's The Earth Institute. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Manchester and an analyst at the Rand Corporation, and at the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.1
His central interest has been technological change and economic growth, being essential his criticism of how the assumptions of neoclassical economics present limitations when it comes to understanding the process of how new technologies are generated, propagated and disseminated, which was reflected in his most widely distributed book, “An evolutionary theory of economic change”, co-authored with Sidney G Winter.
