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Did oil prices trigger an innovation burst in biofuels?

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  • Guillouzouic-Le Corff, Arthur

Abstract

This paper documents an innovation burst in biofuels in the second half of the years 2000s, and empirically confronts it to the massive variations of oil prices between 1985 and 2009. Our results show that increases in oil prices greatly spurred innovation in biofuels. The elasticity of the number of patent families in biofuels with respect to oil prices is greater than 1, and holds both at the country and at the firm level. We find that the effect cannot be caused by the contagion of oil prices to cereal prices, an important input for biofuels. Similarly, we find that the effect is very specific: no such effect is found substituting oil prices with electricity prices, or substituting biofuel patents with biotechnology or environment-related patents. Delving into applicants' sectors suggests that specialized biofuel firms were less responsive to oil price variations than diversified firms.

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  • Guillouzouic-Le Corff, Arthur, 2018. "Did oil prices trigger an innovation burst in biofuels?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 547-559.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:75:y:2018:i:c:p:547-559
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2018.08.031
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    Cited by:

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    2. Atif Maqbool Khan & Jacek Kwiatkowski & Magdalena Osińska & Marcin Błażejowski, 2021. "Factors of Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Countries—The Bayesian Averaging Classical Estimates Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-24, November.
    3. Duc Hong Vo & Tan Ngoc Vu & Anh The Vo & Michael McAleer, 2019. "Modeling the Relationship between Crude Oil and Agricultural Commodity Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-41, April.
    4. Zhuo Chen & Bo Yan & Hanwen Kang, 2022. "Dynamic correlation between crude oil and agricultural futures markets," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 1798-1849, August.
    5. Wang, Jun-Zhuo & Feng, Gen-Fu & Yin, Hua-Tang & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2023. "Toward sustainable development: Does the rising oil price stimulate innovation in climate change mitigation technologies?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 569-583.
    6. Guo, Yaoqi & Yu, Chenxi & Zhang, Hongwei & Cheng, Hui, 2021. "Asymmetric between oil prices and renewable energy consumption in the G7 countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    7. Salisu, Afees A. & Isah, Kazeem & Oloko, Tirimisiyu O., 2024. "Technology shocks and crude oil market connection: The role of climate change," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Hu, Jinyan & Wang, Kai-Hua & Su, Chi Wei & Umar, Muhammad, 2022. "Oil price, green innovation and institutional pressure: A China's perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Serkan ÇINAR & Mine YILMAZER, 2021. "Determinants of Green Technologies in Developing Countries," Isletme ve Iktisat Calismalari Dergisi, Econjournals, vol. 9(2), pages 155-167.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Biofuels; Renewable energy; Fossil fuel energy; Patents; Innovation burst;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

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