Competing Recombinant Technologies for Environmental Innovation

Arbeitspapier

This article presents a model of sequential decisions about investments in environmentally dirty and clean technologies, which extends the path-dependence framework of Arthur (1989). This allows us to evaluate if and how an economy locked into a dirty technology can be unlocked and move towards the clean technology. The main extension involves the inclusion of the effect of recombinant innovation of the two technologies. A mechanism of endogenous competition is described involving a positive externality of increasing returns to investment which are counterbalanced by recombinant innovation. We determine conditions under which lock-in can be avoided or escaped. A second extension is symmetry breaking of the the system due to the introduction of an environmental policy that charges a price for polluting. A final extension adds a cost of environmental policy in the form of lower returns on investment implemented through a growth-depressing factor. We compare cumulative pollution under different scenarios, so that we can evaluate the combination of environmental regulation and recombinant innovation.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper ; No. 10-107/1

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
• Thema: externalities ; hybrid technology ; lock-in ; R&D ; sequential decisions ; Externer Effekt ; Technologiewahl ; Pfadabhängigkeit ; Technischer Fortschritt ; Theorie

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Zeppini, Paolo ; van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Tinbergen Institute
• (wo): Amsterdam and Rotterdam
• (wann): 2010

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/86892
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ