Induced Climate-Related Innovations, Crowding out, and their Impacts on Competitiveness

Investing in research and development (R&D) with the aim to find cleaner production technologies is seen by many as the only option to tackle increasing problems which arise due to global climate change and environmental burdens, and, simultaneously, maintaining economic growth and competitiveness. To provide a deep understanding of the driving forces of both the generation of environmentally related innovations and, maybe even more important, the adoption of such innovations is one central objective of the present contribution to the SEEK project. At least of the same importance is that environmentally related innovations, for instance promoted by environmental policy, do not come at the expense of other productive innovations. Needless to say, innovation in general is a crucial driver, or even the most important factor, for economic growth and competitiveness. Without any doubts, a crowding out of conventionally innovation due to policy induced environmental innovations could be a considerable barrier to competitiveness and economic growth. Also these aspects of environmental innovations will be analysed in this contribution to the SEEK project.

The central research questions will be studied using micro-econometric approaches and Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data. This will be done in cooperation with Professor Reinhilde Veugelers from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Professor Veugelers has extensive experience in working with this database and on doing research on innovations and related topics.

Duration: November 2010 - March 2012

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• Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, Department of Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management
• Dr. Georg Licht, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, Department of Industrial Economics and International Management
• Sascha Rexhäuser, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, Department of Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management
• Hanna Hottenrott, PhD, Catholic University Leuven (KU Leuven), Centre for R&D Monitoring and ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, Department of Industrial Economics and International Management
• Prof. Reinhilde Veugelers, Ph.D., Catholic University Leuven (KU Leuven), Department of Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation, Faculty of Business and Economics
• Annelies Wastyn, Catholic University Leuven (KU Leuven), Department of Managerial Economics, Strategy and Innovation, Faculty of Business and Economics