iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

It has been exciting and a privilege to follow the development of the Swedish Science and Technology Museum’s jubilee exhibition Drömlandet, premiere next week. A history of Sweden, technology, dreams of the future, crises and unexpected consequences that come with new technology. #tekniskamuseet

tekniskamuseet.se

Drömlandet - Tekniska museet

Explore Drömlandet - an exhibition about how Sweden became a global innovation nation. Discover 200 years of technology, society and ideas.

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Reposted by Josef Taalbi

Gregor Semieniuk @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

The economic fallout from the Strait of Hormuz isn't a hypothetical — it's already there. Most people in Europe and the US just can't feel it yet. A threat on our new @newstatesman1913.bsky.social article: what's heading our way, and why the burden won't be shared equally. 1/

screenshot of the article heading at https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/geopolitics/2026/03/the-world-energy-shock-is-coming

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

New working paper from Philipp Jonas Kreutzer’s forthcoming PhD thesis. We find that collaboration networks are conducive for bioeconomy innovation. If policy makers want to stimulate bioeconomy innovation, they should focus on lowering general barriers to collaboration. arxiv.org/pdf/2602.05112

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Nature @nature.com · 11/12/2025

A 400,000-year-old site excavated in England reveals signs of deliberate fires made using the mineral iron pyrite to produce sparks go.nature.com/4rVSTdi

go.nature.com

Oldest known evidence of the controlled ignition of fire

A 400,000-year-old site excavated in England reveals signs of deliberate fires made using the mineral iron pyrite to produce sparks.

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

New paper: doi.org/10.1093/icc/... Why do a few firms come to dominate technological progress? Can you predict what types of innovations organizations will make? Why do firms specialize in certain technologies? I try to explain these things in a new theoretical framework. #innovation

doi.org

Long-run patterns in the discovery of the adjacent possible

Abstract. The notion of the “adjacent possible” has been advanced to theorize the generation of novelty across many different research domains. This study

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Reposted by Josef Taalbi

Vicente Valentim @valentimvicente.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Most work out there argues that it doesn't pay off for center-right parties to move closer to the far-right. Using some of the best evidence yet, this paper shows that the same is true for center *left* parties. Crucial finding as these parties increasingly move in a nativist direction.

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

New paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Patents contain a fantastic wealth of information and has become the go-to measure of innovation. But how well do they capture innovation? In a new study on Sweden I found that they at best capture about 15% of all information on innovation. (1/2)

link.springer.com

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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 30/07/2025

A study in Nature Human Behaviour finds that four-day work weeks without a reduction in income boost workers’ job satisfaction and physical and mental health, driven by enhanced work performance, lower levels of fatigue and fewer sleep problems. go.nature.com/3Um75MP #econsky 🧪

This is figure 2. The plot shows the distribution of work hours at baseline (in red) and at endpoint (in green). Panel a presents company-level average work hours. Panel b presents individual-level work hours.

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Had the great pleasure of introducing @cesifoti.bsky.social for his terrific keynote on Big Data and Machine Learning as a means of exploring economic history. If anyone missed it, it's up on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvF1... #wehc2025 #machinelearning #bigdata #collectivememory

youtube.com

WEHC Keynote 2. 28th of July 2025. 6pm. AF Borgen Lund.

YouTube video by Lund University

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

The 20th World Economic History Congress in Lund has started - with a keynote of Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk on Work, Race, Gender and Class, #wehc2025 #economichistory #lund #intersectionality

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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 17/04/2025

Astronomers using a space telescope have found signs of biological activity on K2-18b, a distant water-covered planet that is 8.6 times bigger than Earth. www.ft.com/content/0142...

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Got to speak a bit on my research on the history of electric cars in RNZ's Saturday Morning. In short: (1) yes, we could've gotten electric cars 100 years ago, (2) No one knows the long-run consequences of technology, (3) tech development and how it's used is a question of democratic concern.

rnz.co.nz

How the electric car almost became the norm, more than a century ago

There's been a huge uptake of electric cars in recent years, but more than 100 years ago, they were arguably even more popular.

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Reposted by Josef Taalbi

UNU Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre @unumerit.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

UNU-MERIT is hiring a Postdoc in AI Innovation Trajectories. Work within a multidisciplinary team to map and analyse AI innovation pathways using NLP—focusing on their societal impact, especially in sectors like agriculture. 🗓️ Apply by 13 April 2025 🔗 go.unu.edu/m93fc

go.unu.edu

Opportunities

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Josef Taalbi @jtaalbi.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

In a new paper I investigate whether feminization of early 20th century EVs held back their development. Summarized here: theconversation.com/electric-car... Full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ei...

theconversation.com

Electric cars were once marketed as ‘women’s cars’. Did this hold back their development over the next century?

An innovation expert looked at decades of car adverts to find out.

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