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on Innovation |
| By: | Ralf Martin; Dennis Verhoeven |
| Abstract: | Innovation policy faces a tradeoff between growth and climate objectives when the knowledge spillover externality from clean innovation is low compared to other sectors. To make such a comparison, we use patent data to estimate field-specific spillover returns generated by R&D support. Supporting Clean presents itself as a win-win opportunity, yielding global returns one-eighth higher than those of an untargeted policy. Nevertheless, only a modest portion of the returns stays within country borders, raising the question of whether national interests distort efficient allocation. Our policy simulations underscore the benefits of supranational coordination in clean innovation policy, potentially boosting returns by approximately 25% for the EU and over 60% globally. Moreover, the EU benefits strongly from US Clean innovation spillovers, impacting the debate on the Inflation Reduction Act. Overall, we identify no explicit innovation policy tradeoff in tackling the twin challenges of economic growth and climate change but emphasize the necessity for international cooperation. |
| Keywords: | innovation, knowledge spillovers, clean technology, innovation policy, green transition, net-zero, patent data, Economic geography, Green Growth, Productivity, Technological change |
| Date: | 2023–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1933&r=ino |
| By: | Eugenie Dugoua |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits one of the rare success stories in global environmental cooperation: the Montreal Protocol and the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances. I show that the protocol increased science and innovation on alternatives to ozone-depleting substances, and argue that agreements can indeed be useful to solving global public goods problems. This contrasts with game-theoretical predictions that agreements occur only when costs to the players are low, and with the often-heard narrative that substitutes were readily available. I reconcile theory and empirics by discussing the role of induced innovation in models of environmental agreements. |
| Keywords: | induced innovation, directed technological change, green innovation |
| JEL: | O30 Q55 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10669&r=ino |
| By: | Enrico Berkes; Davide M. Coluccia; Gaia Dossi; Mara P. Squicciarini |
| Abstract: | How do societies respond to adversity? After a negative shock, separate strands of research document either an increase in religiosity or a boost in innovation efforts. In this paper, we show that both reactions can occur at the same time, driven by different individuals within society. The setting of our study is the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic in the United States. To measure religiosity, we construct a novel indicator based on naming patterns of newborns. We measure innovation through the universe of granted patents. Exploiting plausibly exogenous county-level variation in exposure to the pandemic, we provide evidence that more-affected counties become both more religious and more innovative. Looking within counties, we uncover heterogeneous responses: individuals from more religious backgrounds further embrace religion, while those from less religious backgrounds become more likely to choose a scientific occupation. Facing adversity widens the distance in religiosity between science-oriented individuals and the rest of the population, and it increases the polarization of religious beliefs. |
| Keywords: | religiosity, science, innovation, great influenza pandemic |
| Date: | 2023–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1927&r=ino |
| By: | David Autor; Caroline Chin; Anna Salomons; Bryan Seegmiller |
| Abstract: | We address three core questions about the hypothesized role of newly emerging job categories ('new work') in counterbalancing the erosive effect of task-displacing automation on labor demand: what is the substantive content of new work; where does it come from; and what effect does it have on labor demand? To address these questions, we construct a novel database spanning eight decades of new job titles linked both to US Census microdata and to patent-based measures of occupations' exposure to labor-augmenting and labor-automating innovations. We find, first, that the majority of current employment is in new job specialties introduced after 1940, but the locus of new work creation has shifted - from middle-paid production and clerical occupations over 1940-1980, to high-paid professional and, secondarily, low-paid services since 1980. Second, new work emerges in response to technological innovations that complement the outputs of occupations and demand shocks that raise occupational demand; conversely, innovations that automate tasks or reduce occupational demand slow new work emergence. Third, although flows of augmentation and automation innovations are positively correlated across occupations, the former boosts occupational labor demand while the latter depresses it. Harnessing shocks to the flow of augmentation and automation innovations spurred by breakthrough innovations two decades earlier, we establish that the effects of augmentation and automation innovations on new work emergence and occupational labor demand are causal. Finally, our results suggest that the demand-eroding effects of automation innovations have intensified in the last four decades while the demand-increasing effects of augmentation innovations have not. |
| Keywords: | technological change, new tasks, augmentation, automation, demand shifts |
| Date: | 2022–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:poidwp:049&r=ino |
| By: | Sven Alsheimer (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Breslauer Str. 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany); Tamara Schnell (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany); Camilla Chlebna (Department for Geography, Kiel University, Ludewig-Meyn-Straße 8, 24118 Kiel, Germany); Sebastian Rohe (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The large-scale deployment of low-carbon energy technologies is crucial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ideally limiting climate change. The success of this transition towards a carbon-neutral society depends on how these technologies are perceived by civil society and whether key societal stakeholders support or oppose their roll-out. Two major debates addressing this issue revolve around the concepts of acceptance and legitimacy. Acceptance literature examines the drivers and levels of support of novel technologies and socio-technical systems. Legitimacy literature captures how these technologies are aligned to their institutional environment. Thus far, there is little cross-fertilisation between the two debates. For this contribution, we conducted a systematic literature review of the two research streams to gain a better understanding of how the social dynamics of low-carbon energy technology deployment are conceptualised. Our review involved the analysis of 240 articles from SCOPUS that empirically studied the acceptance or legitimacy of low-carbon energy technologies. Our findings suggest that the two literature strands are indeed rather disconnected – few articles use both concepts conjointly. They further illustrate that both have distinct research foci and intellectual roots. Acceptance studies tend to focus on individual perspectives towards specific technologies and relate these to the individuals’ backgrounds. In contrast, legitimacy studies tend to focus on the overall alignment of specific technologies or entire innovation systems with the institutional context. Based on our findings, we propose a framework, to allow for a better understanding of the dynamic interplay between macro-level legitimacy evaluations and micro-level acceptance evaluations. |
| Keywords: | Acceptance, Legitimacy, Public perceptions, Acceptability, Legitimation, Low-carbon energy technologies |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoe:wpaper:2301&r=ino |
| By: | Bethany Carter; Ignacio Loeser; Maria Jose Lopez; Martin de Dios; Mariana del Rio |
| Abstract: | This report, conducted by a group of Master of Public Administration (MPA) students at the London School of Economics and Political Science, seeks to inform the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on how it should assess innovation in its investigations of potential mergers and acquisitions. From our analysis, we propose four policy recommendations aimed at validating the CMA's changing approach towards innovation and improving its performance through more efficient use of its scarce human resources. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, competition policy, CMA, diffusion |
| Date: | 2023–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:poidwp:066&r=ino |