The economics of green consumption, cultural transmission and sustainable technological change

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bezin, Emeline
• 署名单位: Paris School of Economics; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2019.03.005
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 497-546
• 关键词: Green consumption; cultural transmission; Directed technological change; environmental taxes

摘要

A model which formalizes the interplay between green consumer culture and sustainable technology is used to revisit the trade-off between economic growth and environmental preservation. The theory includes (i) green preferences formed through cultural transmission which involves rational socialization actions, (ii) innovation endogenously directed to sustainable or unsustainable sectors depending on culture through market size effects. The model captures an important feature of sustainable innovation processes which is the existence of path dependency. The approach allows to examine implications for both market-based instruments (i.e., environmental taxes) and non-monetary interventions (i.e., environmental education). The two types of policies are either complements or substitutes depending on the substitutability between clean and dirty goods. Finally, an important disregarded issue is examined: the political sustainability of environmental taxes. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.