Adopt or Innovate: Understanding Technological Responses to Cap-and-Trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Calel, Raphael
• 署名单位: Georgetown University; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180135
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 170-201
• 关键词: environmental-regulation; technical change; eu ets; POLICY; US; performance; hypothesis; demand; sector; nox

摘要

One important motivation for creating cap-and-trade programs for carbon emissions is the expectation that they will stimulate much-needed low-carbon innovation. I construct a new panel of British firms to investigate this hypothesis, finding that the European carbon market has encouraged greater low-carbon patenting and R&D spending among regulated firms without necessarily driving short-term reductions in carbon intensity of output. This stands in contrast to past cap-and-trade programs, which have primarily spurred adoption of existing pollution control technologies, with little effect on innovation. I discuss how to reconcile these contrasting findings and implications for the future of carbon markets.