Diversifying in green technologies in European regions: does political support matter?

Abstract

New green activities in regions tend to build on regional capabilities. This paper makes a first attempt to test the impact of political support for environmental policy at the national and regional scales, besides regional capabilities, on the ability of 95 regions in seven European countries to diversify into new green technologies during the period 2000-12. Evidence is found that related capabilities rather than political support in a region are associated with green diversification of regions. However, while political support at the national scale tends to moderate the role of regional capabilities, political support at the regional scale strengthens it.

Do European firms obey the rules? Environmental innovativeness in light of institutional frameworks

“…Then we sum up the vote shares of parties that lean towards green politics and the vote shares of leftist parties. Left-oriented individuals were found to be characterised by more pro-environmental attitudes and tend to support environmental protection actions and policies (Dunlap 1975;Neumayer 2004;Davidovic, Harring, and Jagers 2019;Santoalha and Boschma 2020). Larger shares of such voters in a community relate to the propensity for collective action to be undertaken and thus the exertion of normative pressure on firms (Delmas and Toffel 2004;Berrone et al 2013).…”

Place-dependence of renewable energy technologies

“…The emergence of new technological paradigms offers windows of opportunities for countries and regions to catch up (Perez and Soete, 1988). Several empirical studies in recent EEG literature also confirm the related diversification process in clean technologies (Montresor and Quatraro, 2019;Perruchas et al, 2019;Santoalha and Boschma, 2019;Tanner, 2016Tanner, , 2014van den Berge et al, 2019), providing evidences on how countries and regions can catch up in the recent clean technological paradigm (Mathews, 2013;Perez, 2016Perez, , 2013.…”

Linking Economic Complexity, Diversification, and Industrial Policy with Sustainable Development: A Structured Literature Review

“…Research on relatedness and economic complexity has made significant progress towards: (1) understanding the path dependency of economic diversification processes; (2) highlighting that not only the number, but also the type and quality of economic activities (e.g., industries, occupations, technologies) matter for economic development; and (3) providing new methods and tools to identify structural constraints and opportunities for smart, inclusive, and sustainable growth [12,13,[17][18][19]38].…”

“…The green cluster is led by Rodrik's green industrial policy study [21] and the innovation policy study of Mazzucato [37]. Apparently, studies on industrial relatedness [20], the regional diversification of green technologies [19], and employment [79] (yellow cluster), are responsible for connecting economic complexity and industrial policy. The industrial policy cluster focuses on environmental sustainability aspects, and they are well connected with studies on environmental conflicts [60], the role of the developmental state for climate policy [80], policies for innovation [81], and energy transition [56].…”

“…Due to its emphasis on empirically identifying highly connected and knowledge-based activities, economic complexity studies tend to concentrate more on intensive technological products or industrial sectors than, for example, economic diversification activities of farmers in poor rural areas. Finally, the industrial policy community shares the emphasis on more value-added activities, but tends to focus more on the (general) positive effects of industrialization for economic catch-up, highlighting market failures, scrutinizing success cases, and discussing the political and macroeconomic factors that hinder or promote economic diversification and sophistication [18][19][20][21].…”