Antoine Dechezleprêtre

London School of Economics and Political Science | LSE · Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (GRI)

We develop and implement a new method for identifying wasted subsidies and use it to provide systematic evidence of the misallocation of carbon offsets in the Clean Development Mechanism—the world's largest carbon offset program. Using newly constructed data on the locations and characteristics of over 1,000 wind farms in India, we estimate that at...

While renewable energy adoption has accelerated globally, significant challenges remain in meeting ambitious deployment targets. This paper analyses bottlenecks in the renewable energy ecosystem and explores potential policy solutions by examining data on trade, innovation, M&A, jobs, and skills. The analysis reveals three key findings: First, the...

We present causal evidence of R&D tax incentives’ positive impacts on a firm’s own innovation and that of its technological neighbors. Exploiting a change in size-based eligibility thresholds for R&D tax relief, we implement a Regression Discontinuity Design using administrative data. We find significant effects of tax relief on (quality-adjusted)...

This paper analyzes imported carbon emission at the firm level. To do so, we combine information on emissions, imports, imported emissions and energy prices for French manufacturing firms between 1997 and 2014. We document a significant increase of the carbon emissions embedded in imports of French manufacturing companies over the period 1997 to 20...

The transition to climate neutrality requires cost reductions in existing clean technologies to enable rapid deployment on a large scale, as well as the development of emerging technologies such as green hydrogen. This policy paper argues that science, technology, innovation, and industrial (STI&I) policies focusing on developing and deploying low-...

The automotive sector is important across OECD countries in terms of value-added and R&D, but is also heavily affected by the green and the digital transformations. This paper offers a novel and holistic view of the automotive sector and its surrounding ecosystem based on a combination of Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) tables, patent data, merge...

Climate negotiations on low-carbon technology transfer have largely revolved around the role of intellectual property rights (IPR). Some countries consider a strong IPR regime to be a necessary condition for technology transfer, while others argue that it limits developing countries' access to affordable green technologies. We contribute to this di...

This paper investigates the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on carbon emissions and economic performance based on a matching methodology exploiting installation-level inclusion criteria combined with difference-in-differences. Installation-level data from national Polluting Emissions Registries in France, Netherlands,...

We examine the impact of temperature on mortality in Mexico using daily data over the period 1998–2017 and find that 3.8 percent of deaths in Mexico are caused by suboptimal temperature (26,000 every year). However, 92 percent of weather-related deaths are induced by cold (<12 degrees C) or mildly cold (12–20 degrees C) days and only 2 percent by o...

Does a unilateral climate change policy cause companies to shift the location of production, thereby creating carbon leakage? In this paper, we analyze the effect of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on the geographic distribution of carbon emissions by multinational companies. The empirical evidence is based on unique data for t...

Increasing the development and diffusion of climate change mitigation technologies on a global scale is critical to reaching net-zero emissions. We have analysed over a quarter of a million high-value inventions in all major climate change mitigation technologies patented from 1995 to 2017 by inventors located in 170 countries. Our analysis shows a...

This study brings new insights to the corporate environmental—financial performance debates. We examine the value that capital markets accord to low-carbon (‘clean’) and fossil fuel (‘dirty’) innovation over time in the United States. To address this question, we employ a patent data set sourced from the US Patent office pertaining to 2526 US liste...

This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the policy instruments adopted by the Netherlands to reach carbon neutrality in its manufacturing sector by 2050. The analysis illustrates the strength of combining a strong commitment to raising carbon prices with ambitious technology support, uncovers the pervasiveness of competitiveness provision...

We conduct a systematic and interdisciplinary review of empirical literature assessing evidence on induced innovation in energy and related technologies. We explore links between demand-drivers (both market-wide and targeted); indicators of innovation (principally, patents); and outcomes (cost reduction, efficiency, and multi-sector/macro consequen...

Do higher wages lead to more automation innovation? To answer this question, we first use the frequency of certain keywords in patent text to create a new measure of automation innovation in machinery. We show that our measure is correlated with a reduction in routine tasks in a cross-sectoral analysis in the US. We combine macroeconomic data from...

Increasing the development and diffusion of low-carbon technologies on a global scale is critical to mitigating climate change. Based on over two million patents from 1995 to 2017 from 106 countries in all major climate mitigation technologies, our analysis shows an annual average low-carbon patenting growth rate of 10 percent from 1995 to 2013. Ye...

This report provides a broad and evidence-based analytical perspective of the debate around the possible role of a Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA) to deal with climate change. The new context of divergent climate ambition has led to a resurgence of interest in BCAs. The paper provides an overview of different policy instruments that can limit carbon...

We examine how Tobin's Q is linked to ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ innovation and innovation efficiency at the firm level. Clean innovation relates to patented technologies in areas such as renewable energy generation and electric cars, whereas dirty innovation relates to fossil-based energy generation and combustion engines. We use a global patent data set...

The study, carried out by the European Patent Office (EPO) with experts led by Professor Keith Maskus (University of Colorado Boulder), assesses the impact of the European patent system on the circulation of technologies through trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the European Single Market. Industries with above-average use of intellectua...

This article reviews the empirical literature on the impacts of environmental regulations on firms’ competitiveness as measured by trade, industry location, employment, productivity, and innovation. The evidence shows that environmental regulations can lead to statistically significant adverse effects on trade, employment, plant location, and produ...

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of international patent families, including their domestic component. We exploit a relatively under-studied feature of patent families, namely the number of patents covering the same invention within a given jurisdiction. Using this information, we highlight common patterns in the stru...

Little progress has been made in climate negotiations on technology since 1992. Yet the diffusion of climate change mitigation technologies to developing countries (non-Annex I) has increased dramatically over the last twenty years. The shift has mostly concerned emerging economies, which are now reasonably well connected to international technolog...

This paper investigates the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on technological change, exploiting installations level inclusion criteria to estimate the System's causal impact on firms' patenting. We find that the EU ETS has increased Low-Carbon innovation among regulated firms by as much as 10%, while not crowding out...

This paper identifies over 50,000 patents filed worldwide in various water-related technologies between 1990 and 2010, distinguishing between those related to availability (supply) and conservation (demand) technologies. Patenting activity is analyzed — including inventive activity by country and technology, international diffusion of such water-re...

This paper measures the response of bilateral trade flows to differences in industrial energy prices across countries. Using a panel for the period 1996-2011 including 42 countries, 62 sectors and covering 60% of global merchandise trade, we estimate the short-run effects of sector-level energy price asymmetry on trade. We find that changes in rela...

We examine the impact of environmental regulation on the international diffusion of new technology through the patent system. We employ a dataset of automobile emission standards between 1992 and 2007 and corresponding data on cross-border patent inflows of technologies developed to comply with these standards. Our analysis, based on a research des...

Ever since the first major environmental regulations were enacted in the 1970s there have been concerns about their impacts on businesses. The recent economic downturn, combined with increased competition from emerging economies, has heightened these concerns, particularly in relation to climate change policies. This review of the growing body of p...

How much should governments subsidize the development of new clean technologies? We use patent citation data to investigate the relative intensity of knowledge spillovers in clean and dirty technologies in four technological fields: energy production, auto-mobiles, fuel and lighting. We find that clean patents receive on average 43% more citations...

UK businesses are subject to a complex framework of energy and climate change policies. Policies vary substantially in terms of their design, the number and types of businesses they affect, the implicit carbon tax they levy on energy used, and their financial costs (in the case of taxes) or revenues (if subsidies). Overlapping polices reduce the ov...

Using novel data on patents, trade of equipment goods, and foreign direct investments and insights from the economic literature, the paper seeks to lay out the state of knowledge on the role of innovation and the diffusion of technologies in the greening of global value chains as well as some of the main policy issues. A special emphasis is put on...

This paper presents the first empirical analysis of programmes to fast-track ‘green’ patent applications in place in seven Intellectual Property offices around the world. We find that only a small share of green patent applications (between 1% and 20% depending on the patent office) request accelerated examination, suggesting that patent applicants...

Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between “dirty” (internal combustion engine) and “clean” (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technolog...

Cet article propose une analyse du positionnement de la France en matière de technologies de lutte contre le réchauffement climatique. La méthodologie s’appuie sur une base de données décrivant l’ensemble des dépôts de brevets entre 1980 et 2008 dans 17 classes technologiques liées au climat. La France est au cinquième rang mondial, avec 5,2 % des...

Can directed technical change be used to combat climate change? We construct new firm-level panel data on auto industry innovation distinguishing between "dirty" (internal combustion engine) and "clean" (e.g. electric and hybrid) patents across 80 countries over several decades. We show that firms tend to innovate relatively more in clean technolog...

As the world considers greener forms of economic growth, countries and sectors are beginning to position themselves for the emerging green economy. This paper combines patent data with international trade and output data in order to investigate who the winners of this “green race” might be. The analysis covers 110 manufacturing sectors in eight cou...

We examine the impact of environmental regulation on the international diffusion of new technology through the patent system. We employ a dataset of automobile emission standards between 1992 and 2007 and corresponding data on cross-border patent inflows of technologies developed to comply with these standards. Our analysis, based on a research des...

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has aimed to encourage the development of low-carbon technologies by putting a price on carbon emissions. Using a newly constructed data set that links 8.5 million European companies with their patenting history and their regulatory status under EU ETS, we investigate the hypothesis that the EU E...

This paper examines the relative influence of domestic and foreign renewable energy policies on innovation activity in wind power using patent data from OECD countries from 1994 to 2005. We distinguish between the impact of demand-pull policies (e.g., guaranteed tariffs, investment and production tax credits), as reflected by wind power capacities...

We examine the impact of environmental regulation on the international diffusion of new technology through the patent system. We employ a dataset of automobile emission standards between 1992 and 2007 and corresponding data on cross-border patent inflows of technologies developed to comply with these standards. Our analysis, based on a research des...

This article uses the European Patent Office Worldwide Patent Statistical Database to examine the geographic distribution and global diffusion of inventions in thirteen climate-mitigation technologies since 1978. The data suggest that until 1990 innovation was driven mostly by energy prices. Since then, environmental policies, and, more recently, c...

Technological Innovation and Climate Change : Where Does France Stand ? We analyse France’s position on global warming mitigation technology. The methodology draws on a database describing all patents filed between 1980 and 2008 in 17 climate-related technological classes. France is the fifth largest innovator in theworld, with 5.2% of patented inv...

Using patent data from 66 countries for the period 1990-2003, we characterize the factors which promote or hinder the international diffusion of climate-friendly technologies on a global scale. Regression results show that technology-specific capabilities of the recipient countries are determinant factors. In contrast, the general level of educatio...

This paper uses the EPO/OECD World Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) to provide a quantitative description of the geographic distribution of inventions in thirteen climate mitigation technologies since 1978 and their international diffusion on a global scale. Statistics suggest that innovation has mostly been driven by energy prices until 1990....

This dissertation presents five empirical papers dealing with innovation activities in climate change mitigation technologies and their international diffusion. We first construct a data set including all patents filed worldwide since 1978 in 13 technologies with high climate change mitigation potential. We use this data to provide a descriptive an...

In a companion paper [Dechezleprêtre, A., Glachant, M., Ménière, Y., 2008. The Clean Development Mechanism and the international diffusion of technologies: An empirical study, Energy Policy 36, 1273–1283], we gave a general description of technology transfers by Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and we analyzed their drivers. In this paper...

Cette thèse présente cinq analyses empiriques sur l'innovation et la diffusion internationale des technologies permettant de lutter contre le réchauffement climatique. Nous utilisons une base de données de tous les brevets déposés depuis 1978 dans 13 technologies à fort potentiel de réductions d'émissions pour décrire l'innovation dans ces technolo...

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expected to stimulate the North–South transfer of climate-friendly technologies. This paper provides an assessment of the technology transfers that take place through the CDM using a data set of 644 registered projects. It provides a detailed description of the transfers (frequency, type, by sector, by host...

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expected to stimulate the North–South transfer of climate-friendly technologies. This paper provides an assessment of the technology transfers that take place through the CDM using a data set of 644 registered projects. It provides a detailed description of the transfers (frequency, type, by sector, by host...