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Technology Prizes for Climate Change Mitigation

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  • Newell, Richard G.
  • Wilson, Nathan E.

Abstract

We analyze whether technology inducement prizes could be a useful complement to standard research grants and contracts in developing climate change mitigation technologies. We find that there are important conceptual advantages to using inducement prizes in certain circumstances. These conceptual inferences are borne out by an examination of the track record of prizes inducing research into public goods, including relevant energy technologies. However, we also find that the prizes' successes are contingent on their proper design. We analyze how several important design elements could influence the effectiveness of a climate technology prize.

Suggested Citation

  • Newell, Richard G. & Wilson, Nathan E., 2005. "Technology Prizes for Climate Change Mitigation," Discussion Papers 10698, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:rffdps:10698
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10698
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Joseph E. Aldy & William A. Pizer, 2009. "Issues in Designing U.S. Climate Change Policy," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 179-210.
    2. de Coninck, Heleen & Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G. & Ueno, Takahiro, 2008. "International technology-oriented agreements to address climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 335-356, January.
    3. Golombek, Rolf & Greaker, Mads & Hoel, Michael, 2020. "Should environmental R&D be prioritized?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. David Perez Castrillo & David Wettstein, 2014. "Discrimination in a new model of contests with two-sided asymmetric information," Working Papers 1407, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    5. Murray, Fiona & Stern, Scott & Campbell, Georgina & MacCormack, Alan, 2012. "Grand Innovation Prizes: A theoretical, normative, and empirical evaluation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(10), pages 1779-1792.
    6. David Pérez-Castrillo & David Wettstein, 2014. "Innovation Contests," CESifo Working Paper Series 4712, CESifo.
    7. Arnault Morisson & Isabelle Liotard & Valérie Revest, 2023. "Small Wins through Inducement Prizes: Introducing Challenge-Oriented Regional Prizes (CORP)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.
    8. David Pérez‐Castrillo & David Wettstein, 2016. "Discrimination In A Model Of Contests With Incomplete Information About Ability," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(3), pages 881-914, August.
    9. Lehmann, Paul, 2009. "Climate Policies with Pollution Externalities and Learning Spillovers," MPRA Paper 21353, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Aalbers, Rob & Shestalova, Victoria & Kocsis, Viktória, 2013. "Innovation policy for directing technical change in the power sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1240-1250.
    11. Delbecq, Benoit & Masters, William A., 2008. "Accelerating innovation with prize rewards: History and typology of technology prizes and a new contest design for innovation in African agriculture," IFPRI discussion papers 835, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Palmer, Karen & Burtraw, Dallas, 2005. "Cost-effectiveness of renewable electricity policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 873-894, November.
    13. Brennan, Timothy J. & Macauley, Molly & Whitefoot, Kate, 2011. "Prizes, Patents, and Technology Procurement: A Proposed Analytical Framework," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-21-rev, Resources for the Future.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    JEL classification:

    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models

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