Jens Horbach

Determinants of eco-innovations by type of environmental impact — The role of regulatory push/pull, technology push and market pull

Empirical analyses of the determinants of environmental innovations were rarely able to distinguish between different areas of environmental impacts. The paper tries to close this gap by employing a new and unique dataset based on the German Community Innovation Survey conducted in 2009. The main purpose of the paper is to test whether different types of eco-innovations (according to their environmental impacts) are driven by different factors. Besides a complex set of different supply, firm specific and demand factors, the literature on the determinants of environmental innovations accentuates the important role of regulation, cost savings and customer benefits. We find that current and expected government regulation is particularly important for pushing firms to reduce air (e.g. CO2, SO2 or NOx) as well as water or noise emissions, avoid hazardous substances and increase recyclability of products. Cost savings are an important motivation for reducing energy and material use, pointing to the role of energy and raw materials prices as well as taxation as drivers for eco-innovation. Customer requirements are another important source for eco-innovations, particularly with regard to products with improved environmental performance and process innovations that increase material efficiency, reduce energy consumption and waste and the use of dangerous substances. Firms confirm a high importance of expected future regulations for all environmental product innovations.

Environmental Innovation and Employment Dynamics in Different Technology Fields - An Analysis Based on the German Community Innovation Survey 2009

The employment effects of environmental technologies are in the focus of politicians but there are only few studies analyzing these effects for different environmental innovation fields. We use the 2009 wave of the German part of the Community Innovation Panel (CIS) allowing for such an analysis at the firm level. The main focus of the paper lies on the analysis of the adaptation behavior of firms with respect to the relationship of employment and (environmental) innovation. We use an endogenous switching regression approach to take the simultaneous character of innovation activities and employment demand into consideration. Our econometric analysis shows that innovative firms in general are characterized by a significantly more dynamic employment development. Especially the realization of environmental process innovations leads to a higher employment within the firm. The theoretical background of this finding is that process innovation induced cost savings improve the competitiveness of firms. This has a positive effect on demand and thus also increases employment. A more detailed analysis by different environmental innovation fields shows that material and energy savings are positively correlated to employment because they especially help to increase the profitability and competitiveness of the firm. On the other side, air and water process innovations that are still dominated by end-of-pipe technologies have a negative impact on the employment development.

Employment and Innovations in the Environmental Sector: Determinants and Econometrical Results for Germany

Besides other determinants environmental regulation, institutions like environmental agencies and social customs lead to a demand for environmental goods and services. On the basis of the public choice theory it can be shown that environmental regulation is endogenous and can be influenced by the environmental awareness of voters and interest groups. Following the so-called Porter hypothesis early developed environmental legislation induces environmental innovations and creates first mover advantages connected with a high international competitiveness of the environmental industry. An empirical analysis based on the establishment panel of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) shows that more than 900,000 persons are employed in the environmental sector in Germany. Following the results of an econometrical analysis of employment perspectives and innovation behaviour integrated environmental technologies will become more relevant whereas employment in “traditional” end-of-pipe fields like the prevention of waste water pollution or air pollution will be reduced.

The role of innovation and agglomeration for employment growth in the environmental sector

Abstract The environmental sector is supposed to yield a dual benefit: its goods and services are intended to tackle environmental challenges and its establishments should create new jobs. However, it is still unclear in empirical terms whether that really is the case. This paper investigates to what extent employment growth in establishments with green products and services is higher compared to other establishments. Furthermore, the main factors determining labour demand in this field are analysed. We use linked employment and regional data for Germany. The descriptive results show that the environmental sector is characterised by disproportionately high employment growth. The application of a generalised linear mixed model reveals that especially innovation and industry agglomeration foster employment growth in establishments in the environmental sector. Establishments without green products and services show a smaller increase in employment, even if they are also innovative.

Lead Markets for Clean Coal Technologies: A Case Study for China, Germany, Japan and the USA

Despite the high CO2 emission intensity of fossil and especially coal fired energy production, these energy carriers will play an important role during the coming decades. The case study identifies the main technological trajectories concerning more efficient fossil fuel combustion and explores the potentials for lead markets for these technologies in China, Germany, Japan and the USA taking into account the different regulation schemes in these countries. We concentrate on technologies that have already left the demonstration phase. This is the case for supercritical (SC) and ultra-supercritical (USC) pulverized coal technologies that are already established. The analysis shows that the typical pattern of a stable lead market only applies to a limited extent. In the 1960s and 1970s, the USA has established a lead market for SC und USC technologies. In the meanwhile, Japan has surpassed the United States, although it started as a typical lag market. Japan has caught up in terms of supply factors, China in terms of price, demand and regulation advantage. This supports the hypothesis that - apart from the demand-oriented lead market model – push factors such as R&D activity play a strong role as well. The advantage of Japan mainly stems from its intensive R&D activities. It can also be observed that some other advantages – such as price and demand advantage – are shifting to China. China is practicing a leapfrogging strategy, and has already become a leader in the market segment of low and middle quality boilers, whereas Japan and Germany still dominate the world turbine market. The conclusion is that lead markets may switch over time to markets with high growth rates, although first mover advantages exist for some market segments such as turbines. First movers have a strong technological expertise which is important in the catching up process of late followers, and they may even profit from the growth in lag countries by exporting and cooperation activities. Thus international technology cooperation is a beneficial process for all involved parties.

Structural Change and Environmental Kuznets Curves

The Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis (EKC) postulates an inverted u-shaped curve between important pollutants and per capita GDP analogous to the relationship between income inequality and income per capita which has been analysed by Kuznets in 1955. The article focuses on an empirical analysis of structural change between branches as one major determinant of EKCs. The results of a cointegration analysis show that amongst other determinants the decline of environmental intensive branches in Germany during the last decades can be econometrically explained by the development of energy prices and the so-called Fourastie hypothesis.