期刊名称:CORE Discussion Papers / Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
出版年度:2008
卷号:1
出版社:Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
摘要:The paper examines the Porter and induced-innovation hypotheses in a firm model where: (i) the firm
has a vintage capital technology with two complementary factors, energy and capital ; (ii) scrapping
is endogenous; (iii) technological progress is energy-saving and endogenous through purposive R&D
investment; (iv) the innovation rate increases with R&D investment and decreases with complexity;
(v) the firm is subject to emission quotas which put an upper bound on its energy consumption at any
date; (vi) energy and capital prices are exogenous. Balanced growth paths are first characterized, and a
comparative static analysis is performed to study a kind of long-term Porter and induced-innovation
hypotheses. In particular, it is shown that tighter emission quotas do not prevent firms to grow in the
long-run, thanks to endogenous innovation, but they have an inverse effect on the growth rate of
profits. Some short-term dynamics are also produced, particularly, to analyze the role of initial
conditions and energy prices in optimal firm behavior subject to environmental regulation. Among
numerous results, we show that (i) firms which are historically ¡°small¡± polluters find it optimal to
massively pollute in the short run: during the transition, new and clean machines will co-exist with old
and dirty machines in the productive sectors, implying an unambiguously dirty transition; (ii) higher
energy prices induce a shorter lifetime for capital goods but they depress investment in both new
capital and R&D, featuring a kind of reverse Hicksian mechanism.
关键词:matching problem, von Neumann-Morgenstern stable sets, farsighted stability