Following on from another 'best practice project' named ISIGrowth, GROWINPRO seeks new ways to kickstart Europe’s economies via a three-year, three-pronged approach covering demand dynamics, productivity growth and societal challenges. Led by the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) in Pisa, Italy, the project gathers researchers from 11 universities and foundations plus the national statistical offices of Austria, Italy and the Netherlands.

The latter are particularly important, says Pierre: 'By including national statistics offices, we're able to access new data and new combinations of statistics. So for example in the Netherlands we have both employer and employee data, i.e. you have the characteristics of the firms in terms of their human resources, their investments, financing and so on; and you have the characteristics of the people who work for these firms – so in the end you can make a link between the specialisation of the people and the performance of the firms.'

Tania’s involvement in GROWINPRO can be traced back to her time at the French Economic Observatory (OFCE), Sciences Po, France – a partner in the abovementioned best practice project, ISIGrowth. Once the Sant’Anna School started assembling their team for GROWINPRO, they asked Tania to set up a research unit in Maastricht. With Tania on board, the Sant’Anna School then asked her to select a research partner. She immediately thought of Pierre given his expertise in issues linked to R&D, innovation, productivity, growth and development.

Tania was already familiar with Pierre’s work, having heard of him via the UNU-MERIT network and having attended several conferences with him. Together, they now lead a work package that explores the microeconomics of productivity changes (WP3). 'For this, we're in charge of two deliverables,' says Pierre: 'One is what data are available and what we can do with it, and the other is the link between competition and innovation. Here we’ll test an idea that goes back to Schumpeter, which holds that competition is good for innovation. But recent theoretical and empirical work by Aghion et al. suggests that competition is good for innovation up to a point: too little or too much competition is bad for innovation.' 

Asked how the project is going so far, Tania is enthusiastic: 'There was a really great atmosphere at the kick-off meeting a couple of months ago. It was a very nice mix of researchers who knew each other from the previous ISIGrowth project and new faces.' Tania is also excited to take on a new challenge as work package leader with Pierre. 'Previously, I contributed as a researcher within a research team. As a work package leader, I have more responsibility now and am more involved in the organisation of the project.' Tania and Pierre will also be hiring a post-doc to assist them with policy modelling, using Agent-Based Methods.