New Perspectives on Structural Change

New Perspectives on Structural Change is a comprehensive edited volume that outlines both the historical roots and state-of-the-art debates on the role of structural change in the process of economic development, including both orthodox and heterodox perspectives and contributions from prominent scholars in this field. The volume consists of four main sections. The first section covers the theoretical foundations of the structural change literature. The second section presents an empirical overview of the major trends of structural change, using up-to-date data sources and methods. The third section presents a broad ranging empirical analysis of the drivers of structural change. The fourth section examines how processes such as inclusive growth, poverty reduction, productive employment, the global income distribution, and environmental sustainability are affected by structural change, and how they can be influenced by policy.

Ludovico Alcorta, Professorial Fellow on Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development, UNU-MERIT; School of Business and Economics, University of Maastricht; Chief Technical Advisor on Industrial Strategy, Government of Oman; UNIDO,Neil Foster-McGregor, Professor of Innovation and Globalisation, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University,Bart Verspagen, Professor of Macroeconomics of Technological Change, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University,Adam Szirmai, Professor of Development Economics, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University

Ludovico Alcorta is Professorial Fellow on "Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development" at UNU-MERIT, School of Business and Economics, University of Maastricht. He has been Director of Industrial Policy, Statistics and Strategic Research at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and is Chief Technical Advisor on Industrial Strategy to the Government of Oman. While at UNIDO he contributed to the preparation of SDGs 8 and 9.
Ludovico's research and publications are in the areas of new technologies, innovation, industrialization and development, including in journals such as World Development, European Journal of Development Research, Research Policy, Oxford Development Papers, Development, Industry and Innovation, Energy Efficiency, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics as well as in China's Economic Research Journal.


Neil Foster-McGregor is a Professor of Globalisation and Innovation at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands. Prior to this he was Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna (2000-2008) and a Senior Research Economist at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw). Neil obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Nottingham in 2001. Neil's research interests include issues of economic growth and development, international trade and globalisation, and innovation and technology transfer.


Bart Verspagen is an economist specialised in the economics of technological change. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Limburg (now called Maastricht University) in Maastricht, the Netherlands, from 1984-1988. After that, he obtained a PhD degree from the same university in 1992. During the five years after that, he held a scholarship from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He was professor of Economics of Innovation at Eindhoven University of technology. His current workplace is the research institute UNU-MERIT in Maastricht.


Adam Szirmai (UNU-MERIT) was Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT and Professor of Development Economics at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance of Maastricht University. His research focused on technological change, productivity, growth in developing countries.