Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149997 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Nota di Lavoro No. 71.2016
Publisher: 
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milano
Abstract: 
A major concern regarding innovation in clean technologies in the EU is that the fragmentation of its innovation system may hinder knowledge flows and, consequently, spillovers across member countries. A low intensity of knowledge flows across EU states can negatively impact their technological base, suppressing opportunities for further innovations and hindering the movement towards the technological frontier. This paper evaluates the fragmentation of the EU innovation system in the field of renewable energy sources (RES) by examining the intensity and direction of knowledge spillovers over the years 1985-2010. We modify the original double exponential knowledge diffusion model to provide information on the degree of integration of EU countries’ innovation efforts and to assess how citation patterns changed over time. We show that EU RES inventors have increasingly built “on the shoulders of the other EU giants”, intensifying their citations to other member countries and decreasing those to domestic inventors. Furthermore, the EU strengthened its position as source of RES knowledge for the US. Finally, we show that this pattern is peculiar to RES, with other traditional (i.e. fossil-based) energy technologies behaving in a completely different way.
Subjects: 
Knowledge Spillovers
Renewable Energy Technologies
Fossil Energy Technologies
EU Innovation
JEL: 
Q55
Q58
Q42
O31
O33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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