An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Seminar: Where Does Energy R&D Come From? A First Look at Crowding Out from Environmentally-Friendly R&D

Date(s): June 17, 2008, 2:00pm

Location: Room 4144, EPA West

Presenter(s): David C. Popp (Syracuse University) and Richard Newell (Duke University)

Description: Recent efforts to endogenize technological change in climate policy models demonstrate the importance of accounting for the opportunity cost of climate R&D investments. Because the social returns to R&D investments are typically higher than the social returns to other types of investment, any new climate mitigation R&D that comes at the expense of other R&D investment may dampen the overall gains from induced technological change. Unfortunately, there has been little empirical work to guide modelers as to the potential magnitude of such crowding out effects. This presentation is a first attempt to address this question. In it, the authors consider the private opportunity costs of climate R&D, asking whether an increase in climate R&D represents new R&D spending, or whether some (or all) of the additional climate R&D comes at the expense of other R&D.

Presentation Document: Where Does Energy R&D Come From? A First Look at Crowding Out from Environmentally-Friendly R&D

Seminar Category: Climate Economics