Directed Technical Change in Clean Energy: Evidence from the Solar Industry

Hans Lööf (), Luis Perez and Christopher Baum

No 470, Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation from Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

Abstract: This paper studies directed technical change and innovation in renewable energy. We construct panel data with micro- and macro observations from nearly 200 countries over a 20-year period and estimate how energy prices, government subsidies, financial markets, spillovers, and path dependence affect patenting in solar thermal and solar cells. Carbon taxes, R&D subsidies to solar technology and own-knowledge stocks have strong, significant positive effects on solar innovations. Subsidies to fossil energy have the adverse effect. We find no compelling evidence that the quality of financial markets and institutions has any consistent impact on the patenting activities of innovators in solar energy.

Keywords: Directed Technical Change; Climate Change; Innovation; Patents; Solar Energy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O30 P28 P47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64 pages
Date: 2018-08-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-ino, nep-reg, nep-res and nep-tid
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0470

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