I am an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic of Milan, School of Management and a Senior Affiliated Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich.

My research is in the economics of science and innovation. I study how scientific and technological knowledge is produced and diffused. In recent work, I have examined how funding, international mobility, and research infrastructure shape scientists’ productivity and careers; how firms engage with and learn from science, from participation in scientific conferences to the disclosure of their own research; and how scientific advances drove the evolution of artificial intelligence — and the value of the companies built on it.

I received my PhD in Economics and Management of Innovation from EPFL in 2015. Before joining the Polytechnic of Milan, I was a Assistant Professor at the University of Bath School of Management, a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, and — earlier — a policy analyst in the Science, Technology and Innovation division of the OECD in Paris, where I worked on innovation, inequality, and inclusive-growth policy. I hold a Master and a Bachelor in Management and Industrial Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano.

Roles & activities

  • Representative at large, Technology and Innovation Management (TIM) Division, Academy of Management (2026–2028).
  • Organizer, MInERS seminar series — a joint initiative of scholars from Milan universities (Bicocca, Bocconi, Cattolica, Polimi, Statale) to foster a local research network in innovation and entrepreneurship.
  • Editorial Review Board member: Organization Science and Industry and Innovation.
  • Reviewer for Science, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Growth, Journal of Management Studies, Strategy Science, Industrial and Corporate Change, Small Business Economics, Regional Studies, Scientometrics, and others.

Contact

Polytechnic of Milan, School of Management — Via Raffaele Lambruschini 4C, 20156 Milano, Italy. Email: stefano.baruffaldi@polimi.it. CV (PDF).