Nicolò Barbieri (University of Ferrara) (webinar)

POSTPONED

“Green Technologies, Interdependencies and Policy”

Abstract: The present study explores the technological interdependencies between green and non-green inventions. Based on patent data filed over the period 1978-2014, we estimate a spatial autoregressive model using yearly co-occurrence matrices to capture the extent to which innovative activities in the green technological domain depend on the innovation rates in technological domains it occurs with. The first finding highlights that the development of green technologies strongly relies on advances in other green and non-green technological domains. In particular, the growth in green patenting is positively associated with the patenting growth rates in other technologies whose relevance for the green economy is usually neglected. Building on such insight we assess whether environmental policies affect this particular instantiation of innovation, i.e. the green-supporting technologies. Whereas the results of the instrumental variable approach confirm that environmental policies spur green innovation, we find no evidence of impacts on green-supporting technologies. Accordingly, extending the scope of policy intervention to trigger also advances in green-supporting fields will speed up the greening of the economy.

Joint with Alberto Marzucchi (Gran Sasso Science Institute) and Ugo Rizzo (University of Ferrara).