Technology Adoption and Aggregate Energy Efficiency

William Pizer, Winston Harrington, Raymond Kopp, Richard D. Morgenstern and Jhih-Shyang Shih

No 10616, Discussion Papers from Resources for the Future

Abstract: Improved technology is often cited as a means to alter the otherwise difficult trade-off between the economic burden of regulation and environmental damage. Focusing on energy-saving technologies that mitigate the threat of climate change, we find that both energy prices and financial health influence technology adoption among a sample of industrial plants in four heavily polluting sectors. Based on a model linking technology adoption to growth in aggregate efficiency, we estimate that a doubling of energy prices, after raising the growth rate to 2.1%, would require slightly more than 50 years to generate a 50% improvement in aggregate efficiency relative to the baseline forecast.

Keywords: Research; and; Development/Tech; Change/Emerging; Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37
Date: 2002
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Working Paper: Technology Adoption and Aggregate Energy Efficiency (2002)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:rffdps:10616

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10616

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