Knowledge sources and impacts on subsequent inventions: Do green technologies differ from non-green ones?

Nicolò Barbieri (), Alberto Marzucchi and Ugo Rizzo

No 819, SEEDS Working Papers from SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies

Abstract: The paper investigates the nature and impact of green technological change. We focus on the search and impact spaces of green inventions: we explore the knowledge recombination processes leading to the generation of inventions and their impact on subsequent technological developments. Using a large sample of patents, filed during the period 1980-2012, we employ established patent indicators to capture the complexity, novelty and impact of the invention process. Technological heterogeneity is controlled for by comparing green and non-green technologies within narrow technological domains. We find that green technologies are more complex and appear to be more novel than non-green technologies. In addition, they have a larger and more pervasive impact on subsequent inventions. The larger spillovers of green technologies are explained only partially by novelty and complexity.

Keywords: environmental inventions; patent data; knowledge recombination; knowledge impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 O34 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2019-08, Revised 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-ino, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/0819.pdf First version, 2019 (application/pdf)
http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/0819.pdf Revised version, 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Knowledge sources and impacts on subsequent inventions: Do green technologies differ from non-green ones? (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:srt:wpaper:0819

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