IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aerins/v7y2025i1p90-106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Induced Innovation, Inventors, and the Energy Transition

Author

Listed:
  • Eugenie Dugoua
  • Todd D. Gerarden

Abstract

We study how individual inventors respond to incentives to work on "clean" electricity technologies. Using natural gas price variation, we estimate output and entry elasticities of inventors and measure the medium-term impacts of a price increase mirroring the social cost of carbon. We find that the induced clean innovation response primarily comes from existing clean inventors. New inventors are less responsive on the margin than their average contribution to clean energy patenting would indicate. Our results strengthen the rationale for government intervention to expedite the energy transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Eugenie Dugoua & Todd D. Gerarden, 2025. "Induced Innovation, Inventors, and the Energy Transition," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 90-106, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:7:y:2025:i:1:p:90-106
    DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20230522
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20230522
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E203961V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20230522.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20230522.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aeri.20230522?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • Q35 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Hydrocarbon Resources
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aerins:v:7:y:2025:i:1:p:90-106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.