Lionel Nesta

Lionel Nesta is full Professor at Université Côte d'Azur (UCA). Prior to joining UCA in 2016, he was director of the Department for Research on Innovation and Competition at OFCE, Sciences-Po Paris from 2015 to 2020. His research concerns the determinants of strategic decisions by firms and how the series of decentralised decisions translate into an aggregate dynamic. By strategic decisions, Prof. Nesta looks at decisions which may jeopardise firm survival or, conversely, enhance their growth, such as product diversification, R&D investments, price-costs margins, product or process innovation, and export participation. In his research, firms are heterogeneous in their efficiency and their determinants thereof. Hence, macro-economic growth and industry evolution conceals a complex web of microeconomic decisions by heterogeneous firms. An emerging field of interest is green growth, where he by and large focuses on the policy effects on green innovation, engelian elasticities and inequality, and how digitalisation -- and artificial intelligence, is intertwined with product and labour market competition. Prof. Nesta has participated in several research contracts, ranging from the local environment (CASA), to national ministries (e.g. ministry of higher education, ministry of finance) and with the European Union (DG Growth, FP7, Horizon 2020, etc.).

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