Marius Ley

Insights into the Determinants of Innovation in Energy Efficiency

Given the increasing interest in understanding (and supporting by means of public policy) innovative activity related to energy efficient technology (EET), I attempt to identify firm-level determinants of innovation and research in this field. A novel dataset of Swiss firms has been assembled by means of a survey in 2009, resulting in more than 2300 observations featuring various indicators of innovative activity and success. Applying standard econometric methodology, I find sizeable differences of the explaining factors of energy efficiency related innovation as compared to overall innovation. In particular, market environment related variables important for overall innovative activity seem to have little explanatory power for EET related innovation, raising the question whether such innovation sufficiently responds to current and potential future demand.

Factors determining the adoption of energy-saving technologies in Swiss firms

This study investigates the factors that determine the inter-firm and intra-firm adoption rates of energy-saving technologies. These factors can be on theoretical terms firm-specific rank effects, inducement effects, adoption barriers as well as order, stock and epidemic effects that are related to different kinds of external effects. Data for 2324 Swiss firms for the year 2008 are used that contain information about four categories of energy-saving technology applications (electromechanical and electronic applications; applications in motor vehicle and traffic engineering; in building construction; and in power-generating processes) that are studied separately. The results show that there are significant differences with respect to rank effects and adoption barriers between inter-and intra-firm diffusion. In practically all cases positive epidemic and/or network effects outweigh potential negative stock and order effects. Inducement effects, particularly those traced back to intrinsic motivations for environment-friendly technologies, show clearly positive effects on the adoption rates.