6533b86efe1ef96bd12cb016

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Evaluation of the energy and environmental benefits of policies to support research and development

subject

description

Environmental innovations can play a central role in the fight against climate change. Also, the commitment of the international community in favor of the climate is reflected in particular by the implementation of policies for these innovations. This thesis studies the process in which these innovations appear in France, in particular the effects of environmental regulations, as well as their consequences on company performance.The challenges of this thesis are threefold: (i) contribute to a better understanding of the concept of environmental innovation; (ii) determine the strategic behavior of companies in terms of the dissemination of environmental innovations; (iii) develop an empirical methodology for evaluating the effects of public policy instruments on R&D expenditure and then on environmental and energy innovations, as well as their consequences on the efficiency of production systems. The empirical methodology will be based on the CDM model (for Crepon, Duguet, Mairesse, 1998), which is a structural model in three stages, seeking to analyze the relationships between R&D expenditure, innovation and productivity.The literature offers different definitions of the concept of environmental innovation. The objective of chapter 1 is to contribute to this debate by making the link between traditional innovation, sustainable development and environmental innovation, in order to better understand the latter and retain a single definition for the rest of the thesis. This review of the literature shows that environmental innovations do not spread in the same way as traditional innovations. Indeed, an imbalance exists between R&D expenditure related to the environment and R&D expenditure for other innovation activities. This imbalance raises the question of the difficulties of certain types of companies in implementing environmental innovations.The objective of Chapter 2 is to shed light on this debate by providing an overview of R&D and innovation activities of companies in France. Our main results show that the implementation of environmental innovations varies according to the type of company and according to the environmental regulation policy.The objective of Chapter 3 is to integrate environmental innovations within the CDM model. Our econometric results show that R&D intensity promotes environmental innovations, which themselves tend to increase business productivity. We nevertheless notice some different results of the R&D intensity effect, when firms adopt two types of environmental technologies in isolation.