Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

The Optimal Timing of Adoption of a Green Technology

Contents:

Author Info

  • Maria Cunha-e-Sá

    ()

  • Ana Reis

Abstract

We study the optimal timing of adoption of a cleaner technology and its effects on the rate of growth of an economy in the context of an AK endogenous growth model. We show that the results depend upon the behavior of the marginal utility of environmental quality with respect to consumption. When it is increasing, we derive the capital level at the optimal timing of adoption. We show that this capital threshold is independent of the initial conditions on the stock of capital, implying that capital-poor countries tend to take longer to adopt. Also, country-specific characteristics, as the existence of high barriers to adoption, may lead to different capital thresholds for different countries. If the marginal utility of environmental quality decreases with consumption, a country should never delay adoption; the optimal policy is either to adopt immediately or, if adoption costs are “too high”, to never adopt. The policy implications of these results are discussed in the context of the international debate surrounding the environmental political agenda. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10640-006-9045-8
Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Bibliographic Info

Article provided by European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists in its journal Environmental and Resource Economics.

Volume (Year): 36 (2007)
Issue (Month): 1 (January)
Pages: 35-55

as in new window
Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:36:y:2007:i:1:p:35-55

Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=100263

Related research

Keywords: cost of adoption; growth; optimal timing of adoption; pollution; technology adoption; 033; 040; Q20;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Brock,W.A. & Taylor,M.S., 2003. "The kindergarten rule of sustainable growth," Working papers 8, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
  2. Jeremy Greenwood & Boyan Jovanovic, 1998. "Accounting for Growth," NBER Working Papers 6647, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Jeremy Greenwood & Boyan Jovanovic, 2001. "Accounting for Growth," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 179-224 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. William A. Brock & M. Scott Taylor, 2004. "Economic Growth and the Environment: A Review of Theory and Empirics," NBER Working Papers 10854, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Parente Stephen L., 1994. "Technology Adoption, Learning-by-Doing, and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 346-369, August.
  5. Stokey, Nancy L, 1998. "Are There Limits to Growth?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(1), pages 1-31, February.
  6. Aubhik Khan & B. Ravikumar, 1998. "Costly Technology Adoption and Capital Accumulation," Development and Comp Systems 9802001, EconWPA.
  7. Elbasha, Elamin H. & Roe, Terry L., 1996. "On Endogenous Growth: The Implications of Environmental Externalities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 240-268, September.
  8. Reis, Ana Balcao, 2001. "Endogenous Growth and the Possibility of Eliminating Pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 360-373, November.
  9. Bronwyn H. Hall & Beethika Khan, 2004. "Adoption of New Technology," Development and Comp Systems 0401001, EconWPA.
  10. Balvers, Ronald J. & H. Bergstrand, Jeffrey, 1997. "Equilibrium real exchange rates: closed-form theoretical solutions and some empirical evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 345-366, June.
  11. Philippe Michel & Gilles Rotillon, 1995. "Disutility of pollution and endogenous growth," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 6(3), pages 279-300, October.
  12. Romer, Paul, 1994. "New goods, old theory, and the welfare costs of trade restrictions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 5-38, February.
  13. Brock,W.A. & Taylor,M.S., 2004. "The Green Solow model," Working papers 16, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
  14. Lans Bovenberg, A. & Smulders, Sjak, 1995. "Environmental quality and pollution-augmenting technological change in a two-sector endogenous growth model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 369-391, July.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Bretschger, L. & Smulders, J.A., 2007. "Sustainable use of resources and economic dynamics," Open Access publications from Tilburg University urn:nbn:nl:ui:12-339920, Tilburg University.
  2. S.J. Rubio & J.R. García & J.L. Hueso, 2009. "Neoclassical Growth, Environment and Technological Change: The Environmental Kuznets Curve," Working Papers 2009.125, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
  3. Färnstrand Damsgaard, Erika, 2010. "Exhaustible Resources, Technology Choice and Industrialization of Developing Countries," Working Paper Series 844, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:36:y:2007:i:1:p:35-55

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Guenther Eichhorn) or (Christopher F. Baum).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.