This paper investigates the role of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and Environmental Policies (EPs) on clean (renewable) and dirty (fossil-based) technology diffusion from top-innovators. IPR protection and EPs are extensively debated policy tools, as IPR protection addresses knowledge market failure, while EPs respond to pressing local and global environmental externalities. A model of monopolistic […]
Private and Public: An overview of RD&D investments in the Power Sector
13/01/2013 by
In this paper we make an explicit effort to collect, harmonize and describe data on power-related R&D from both the public and the private sector for a sample of 16 countries over the years 1995-2007. We focus on the upstream energy sector (power) due to both its’ relevance for energy security concerns and future climate […]
Heterogeneous Firms Trading In Ideas: An Application to Energy Technologies
01/12/2012 by
Notwithstanding the central role attributed to technology transfer (TT) and the effort to promote it through the creation of permanent international bodies such as the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the UNFCCC, very little is known about the determinants of this process with respect to energy technologies. This paper marries the literature on international trade […]
Energy intensity developments in 40 major economies: Structural change or technology improvement?
11/10/2012 by
This study analyzes energy intensity trends and drivers in 40 major economies using the WIOD database, a novel harmonized and consistent dataset of input–output table time series accompanied by environmental satellite data. We use logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition to (1) attribute efficiency changes to either changes in technology or changes in the structure of […]
Ambiguous Aggregation of Expert Opinions: The Case of Optimal R&D Investment
04/10/2012 by
How should a decision-maker allocate R&D funds when a group of experts provides divergent estimates on a technology’s potential effectiveness? To address this question, we propose a simple decision-theoretic framework that takes into account ambiguity over the aggregation of expert opinion and a decision-maker’s attitude towards it. In line with the paper’s focus on R&D […]
Migration, Cultural Diversity and Innovation: A European Perspective
04/10/2012 by
This paper analyses the effect of skilled migration on two measures of innovation, patenting and citations of scientific publications, in a panel of 20 European countries. Skilled migrants positively contribute to the knowledge formation in host countries as they add to the pool of skills in destination markets. Moreover, they positively affect natives’ productivity, as […]
What should we expect from innovation? A model-based assessment of the environmental and mitigation cost implications of climate-related R&D
11/01/2012 by
This paper addresses two basic issues related to technological innovation and climate stabilisation objectives: i) Can innovation policies be effective in stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations? ii) To what extent can innovation policies complement carbon pricing (taxes or permit trading) and improve the economic efficiency of a mitigation policy package? To answer these questions, we use […]
