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Are Green Inventions really more complex? Evidence from European Patents

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Abstract

A large body of existing literature extensively studied the economic deter-minants and effects of environmental innovations. However, only a few studiesanalyzed the specific features of green technologies in the early phasesof theinvention process. The aim of this paper is to investigate knowledgerecombi-nation patterns in the green domain. The focus is on identifying whether andhow different bodies of technology are combined and integrated. Exploitinga large sample of European patent data, from 1980 to 2012, the paper inves-tigates the degree of diversity in the knowledge sources and the generationphase of green inventions. Using the Integration Score as an index of techno-logical diversity we compare the recombinant features of Green Technologieswith a control sample of “Traditional Technologies†, accurately drawn fromthe universe of all patent applications. Empirical results suggest that, aftercontrolling for a number of typical characteristics which may affect diversity,Green Technologies systematically show a higher degree of diversitywhencompared to non-green ones.

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  • Fusillo, Fabrizio, 2020. "Are Green Inventions really more complex? Evidence from European Patents," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202015, University of Turin.
    • Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:202015
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    2. Ascione, Grazia Sveva, 2023. "Technological diversity to address complex challenges: the contribution of American universities to sdgs," MPRA Paper 119452, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Belmartino, Andrea, 2022. "Green & non-green relatedness: challenges and diversification opportunities for regional economies in Argentina," Nülan. Deposited Documents 3697, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.

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