TECHNIS is pleased to invite you to a free webinar. TECHNIS webinars focus on recent legal, economic, managerial, ethical and policy issues related to technological innovation. Our approach is interdisciplinary and presentations are given by experts in different fields such as economics, law, management, STS, sociology, anthropology and philosophy. Webinar presentations last for 20min and are followed by a 40min discussion.

Please join us for a webinar on Tuesday the 12th of May 2026 at 11:00 London time i.e. 12:00 Brussels time, 13:00 Athens time. The speaker is Fabian Gaessler, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The title of the talk is "Limits to the Division of Innovative Labor: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry".

This webinar is free and open to all. The moderator is Dr. Andreas Panagopoulos. 

Join Zoom Meeting: https://uoc-gr.zoom.us/j/84642993639?pwd=4mpCWh3kXwL7TeODcCa7UZ9cKEbbYU.1

Meeting ID: 846 4299 3639
Passcode: 532636 

Abstract: Vertical disintegration has deepened the division of innovative labor, with academia conducting research and industry focusing on development. We investigate how firms adjust their R&D activities when new market opportunities arise but academic research remains inelastic. Focusing on the pharmaceutical sector and leveraging Medicare Part D– a 2006 policy expanding prescription drug coverage for the elderly– we find that firms increase development for diseases with greater market expansion, while academic research remains remarkably unresponsive. Firms with pre-existing internal research capacity and academic ties expand their scientific output the most, a pattern consistent with these firms being better positioned to respond to the resulting knowledge shortfall. These findings underscore the limited market orientation of academia and show how demand shocks reallocate research effort across sectors, shifting competitive advantage toward more vertically integrated firms in science-intensive industries.

Short Bio: Fabian Gaessler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Business at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Prior to this, he was Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich and Interim Professor for Technology Management at the Technical University of Munich. He is an Affiliated Professor at the Barcelona School of Economics and the Barcelona School of Management, and remains an Affiliated Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. His research lies at the intersection of innovation and strategic management, with a particular focus on intellectual property rights, knowledge production, and new technologies. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Management Science, Review of Economics and Statistics, Strategic Management Journal, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Public Economics, and Research Policy.