FINNOV

FINNOV is proud to sponsor a workshop entitled "Explaining the trends in income inequality: The roles of financial institutions and leading industrial sectors". The workshop is organised by the University of Bordeaux (FINNOV WP 5).

Background Information

The knowledge-based economy has evolved in a context of increases of income inequalities in OECD countries, especially in the very top incomes and a decline of wages share in value added. Some have argued that this smart capitalism is an alternative model to a finance-led accumulation regime, there is evidence of connections between the financialization process that are integral to new models of innovation and increasing income inequality. Most of the OECD countries have experienced de-industrialization and a growth of financial services, both of which appear to have contributed to income inequality. But is income inequality also inherent in the evolution of innovative industrial sectors such as biopharma, ICT, clean tech, and autos? To understand the relationship between innovation and inequality in and across both OECD and developing countries, there is a need ask questions concerning access to new innovative (expensive) products, the decrease of the demand for low-qualified workers, the demand-pull effects on innovation, and the transformation of labour-management relations and corporate governance as these changes have occurred in various innovative sectors. In short, to what extent is incomes inequality influencing the dynamic of industries, or vice versa. The Innovation & Inequality conference in Pisa (May 2010) was largely focused on the pharmaceutical industry, the Bordeaux conference will try to go beyond pharma and try to study the income inequality-innovation relations in various industries and growth regimes.

Papers addressing the following questions will be considered:

• inequality and corporate governance, innovation and labour-management relations 
• financialization, innovation and inequality in various industries 
• access to products/services and inequality in various industries 
• inequality, demand and innovation 
• innovation, equitable growth and sustainability 
• redistribution of income versus inequitable innovation as drivers of inequality

To find out more about this event, please contact Matthieu Montalban (matthieu.montalban@u-bordeaux4.fr) or Philippe Gorry (philippe.gorry@u-bordeaux4.fr).