Research and development (R and D) leads to innovation and innovation leads to technological
change. Technological change in turn is the primary driver of economic growth. Public private
partnerships -- cooperative relationships among industry government and or universities --
leverage the efficiency of R and D and are thus a critical aspect of a nation¿s innovation
system. This text is intended for upper-level undergraduate and MBA courses such as Economics
and Technology Economics of Innovation and Economics of Science and Technology among others.
The first chapter introduces the concept of public private research partnerships along with
other concepts fundamental to an understanding of innovation and technology policy. The
framework chapters (2-5) set forth an argument for the public¿s role ¿ government¿s role ¿ in
innovation in general and in public private partnership in particular. The remaining chapters
(6-14) describe a number of public private partnerships and to the extent possible evaluate
their social impact.
