Drivers of environmental innovation - Vinnova

Examples of communicative instruments are missing from this report due to
the lack of relevant material are procurement – both standard and advanced
technology procurement - and information supply.
4.5 Summary and comments
There are few empirical results to enable anything certain to be said about the
effects on innovation of environmental policy instruments. Most instruments
studied have had only limited effects on innovation. Technology forcing
standards may hold the largest potential for radical innovations.
Table 6
Overview of effects on innovation
Regulatory instruments
Regulations - diffusion, incremental
innovations
- innovation outside
regulated sector
- affect small firms less
than big
- search process also
before implementation
Economic instruments
Taxes - some effects on process
and product innovation
- search process also
before implementation
Subsidies - more effects than taxes
(regards energy and
diffusion)
- limited effects
Technology
forcing standards
- radical innovations
Product
regulation
Component,
pollutant
regulation
Permit based
regulation
- product rather than
process innovations
- process rather than
product innovations
- larger effects than
incident based
regulation
Communicative
instruments
Voluntary
agreements
- small effects
Network creation - some effects
There are, however, large gaps in the empirical data on many instruments, and
the instruments may be more or less effective than indicated here. One reason
for the lack of data is that some of the instruments have been implemented
quite recently and only in a handful of instances. It is also possible that the
extensive literature search has not identified all of the studies undertaken.
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