Green Innovation and Green Manufacturing: Links between Environmental Policies, Innovation, and Production

Trade Development and Political Economy presents: Claire Brunel - Green Innovation and Green Manufacturing: Links between Environmental Policies, Innovation, and Production

Claire Brunel, Assistant Professor, School of International Service, American University

This paper addresses the claim that environmental policies stimulate domestic economies. Brunel parses the claim into two sequential parts: the effect of policies on innovation and the effect of that innovation on resulting manufacturing production. The empirical evidence for 27 OECD countries between 1988 and 2003 suggests that an additional policy promoting the development or use of renewable energies is associated with a significant rise in the adoption of existing foreign technologies, but few new inventions at home. In turn, however, the increase in (mostly foreign) patent filings is associated with a significant growth in manufacturing production. Therefore, there is evidence that renewable energy policies stimulate domestic economies through manufacturing, but less through innovation.

Claire Brunel is an Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at American University. Her research focuses on issues at the intersection of environmental economics and international trade. Prior to coming to SIS, Professor Brunel worked for the World Bank and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and at the Embassy of France as Trade Policy Attaché. She received her PhD in economics from Georgetown University.

Sponsored by the Trade Development and Political Economy Department at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs