The third publication of Jan Witajewski-Baltvilks in “Energy Economics”

The article entitled “Induced Technological Change and Energy Efficiency Improvements” was co-authored by Elena Verdolini from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) and Massimo Tavoni (FEEM, CMCC i Politecnico di Milano). The research leading to the results described in the paper was performed during the collaboration of the three researchers in FEEM in Milan.

In the paper the authors explore the drivers and consequences of technological improvement in energy-intensive industries. On the theory side they show that research effort in these industries could be predicted by energy expenditure and level of past innovative activity. In general equilibrium, the speed of technological advancement depends on the growth of energy prices. The authors discuss also under what conditions higher productivity in energy intensive sectors leads to an increase in energy efficiency of the economy. In the empirical section, they used patents data to quantify the effects identified in the theoretical section.

The article is available on the Science Direct website.

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Previous articles of Jan Witajewski-Baltvilks published in Energy Economics:

• Lennox J.A., Witajewski-Baltvilks (2017). Directed technical change with capital-embodied technologies: Implications for climate policy. Energy Economics, vol. 67, pp.400-409. → see
• Witajewski-Baltvilks J., Verdolini E., Tavoni M. (2015). Bending the learning curve, Energy Economics, vol. 52, pp. 86-99. → see