Directed Technical Changeand Renewable Energies:Policy Incentives to Promote Solar Innovations

Directed Technical Changeand Renewable Energies:Policy Incentives to Promote Solar Innovations | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Directed Technical Changeand Renewable Energies:Policy Incentives to Promote Solar Innovations Christopher Baum, Hans Lööf, Andreas Stephan, Ingrid Viklund-Ros This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8085630/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 28 Apr, 2026 Read the published version in The Journal of Technology Transfer → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper examines determinants of directed technical change at the firm level in the electricity generation industry. We investigate the combined effect of different policy incentives to promote solar innovations. We study the impact of electricity prices, R&D subsidies, public direct investments, feed-in tariffs, and other financial support, as well as possible offsetting effects of public support to wind and fossilfuel energy technologies for firms in 12 European countries. In total, we consider about 33,000 patents for 2,306 firms over the period 1980–2015. The empirical analysis is conducted on both firms specialized in only solar energy technology and firms innovating in two or more technologies. The results provide robust evidence on induced technical change. The effects of public policy are technologically significant. JEL: C23; O31; O33; Q42; Q55 Directed technical change renewable technologies induced innovation panel data correlated random effects Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 28 Apr, 2026 Read the published version in The Journal of Technology Transfer → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8085630","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":548910461,"identity":"c359c0ac-ac38-4272-81c3-e26437d66ce4","order_by":0,"name":"Christopher Baum","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Boston College","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Christopher","middleName":"","lastName":"Baum","suffix":""},{"id":548910462,"identity":"db843df8-052d-4b6e-9098-e1a5993308ed","order_by":1,"name":"Hans Lööf","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7UlEQVRIie3RsQrCMBCA4StCu5zOCYU+Q6SgCD5MitApiGMHh7qki76B4KNYKehScXVUBKcOHXUR0+rgYuzokH84snxwSQBMpj+M1XMC4CSzGBA4EDUbEDUx37yJ3ZgcOTQjfWeflcCGHtKLPBVRCHS1SK1b9J0M5uOQAAt9dIOku8wFuHaHtzDXLJaKnppZsHYD6bZlBJ6NrGVJDTkUflmROd0o8ngR6/7QkKNgpCbEUiSuFkMG7VhHih7h1V0wkHS5DZFKwTLc6hYTfllG6sWc3ZUU05FHsrx7vk2/kzr+ca4/Jf0BTCaTyfSjJ+3jR7zUBbb/AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH)","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hans","middleName":"","lastName":"Lööf","suffix":""},{"id":548910463,"identity":"a92a5b6b-4cc5-4a61-bb77-a4c8a0e87664","order_by":2,"name":"Andreas Stephan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Linneus University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andreas","middleName":"","lastName":"Stephan","suffix":""},{"id":548910464,"identity":"402f5532-4f16-4936-8c8a-67f00cf1df86","order_by":3,"name":"Ingrid Viklund-Ros","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Royal Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ingrid","middleName":"","lastName":"Viklund-Ros","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-11-11 10:23:24","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8085630/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8085630/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-026-10331-0","type":"published","date":"2026-04-28T15:57:24+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":96590068,"identity":"446c17f2-8289-4d3d-adaa-1d446c23582f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-24 06:11:08","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":191620,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Anonymous.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8085630/v1/52c87cb86c2db8378d2c9e35.pdf"},{"id":96590067,"identity":"2be098c6-bf88-48a2-902b-c504f52502fe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-24 06:11:08","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5202,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"a2ad8db18b67413391785d2fca51f7b6.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8085630/v1/c13274817cb1855a12085e70.json"},{"id":108438052,"identity":"8f01fbe2-1d77-4d73-94d1-08db566929cc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-04 16:06:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":135556,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Anonymous.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8085630/v1_covered_bb18f9c7-42a2-4a8c-bac0-d01d8f9f8271.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Directed Technical Changeand Renewable Energies:Policy Incentives to Promote Solar Innovations","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Directed technical change, renewable technologies, induced innovation, panel data, correlated random effects","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8085630/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8085630/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper examines determinants of directed technical change at the firm level in the electricity generation industry. We investigate the combined effect of different policy incentives to promote solar innovations. We study the impact of electricity prices, R\u0026amp;D subsidies, public direct investments, feed-in tariffs, and other financial support, as well as possible offsetting effects of public support to wind and fossilfuel energy technologies for firms in 12 European countries. In total, we consider about 33,000 patents for 2,306 firms over the period 1980–2015. The empirical analysis is conducted on both firms specialized in only solar energy technology and firms innovating in two or more technologies. The results provide robust evidence on induced technical change. The effects of public policy are technologically significant.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJEL: \u003c/strong\u003eC23; O31; O33; Q42; Q55\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Directed Technical Changeand Renewable Energies:Policy Incentives to Promote Solar Innovations","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-24 06:11:03","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8085630/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"5e680e99-237a-41c1-9bed-9a24c77891cc","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 24th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-04T16:06:02+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-8085630","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-026-10331-0","journal":{"identity":"the-journal-of-technology-transfer","isVorOnly":false,"title":"The Journal of Technology Transfer"},"publishedOn":"2026-04-28 15:57:24","publishedOnDateReadable":"April 28th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-24 06:11:03","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s10961-026-10331-0","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-026-10331-0","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8085630","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8085630","identity":"rs-8085630","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}