Människoapans utmaning: miljö, tillväxt och vår planets framtid

Abstract

Mänskligheten reser sig just nu ur fattigdom och misär i en omfattning som saknar historiskt motstycke. Ekonomisk tillväxt och teknologisk utveckling har samtidigt gjort människan till en naturkraft, som sätter stora spår på planeten.

Vad händer i slutet av det här århundradet, när elva miljarder människor får samma levnadsstandard som den vi har i Sverige i dag, om inte högre? Klarar jorden det?

Budskapet i Människoapans utmaning är att ekonomisk tillväxt inte behöver vara dåligt för miljön. Tvärtom är en rikare värld på många sätt en förutsättning för en grönare tillvaro. Men det bygger på att vi förstår hur marknadsekonomin kan hjälpa oss att frigöra vår kreativitet och lära av våra misstag. Kapitalismen ger oss möjlighet att anpassa oss och åtgärda de miljöproblem vi tidigare orsakat.

Människoapans utmaning blickar mot en framtid fylld av experiment, där äganderätt, ny teknik och miljarder människoapors kreativitet räddar planeten.

The Effect of Marshallian and Jacobian Knowledge Spillovers on Jobs in the Solar, Wind and Energy Efficiency Sector

Article (with peer review)Publication

Aldieri, L., Grafström, J., & Vinci, C. P.

Publication year

2021

Published in

Energies, 14(14), 4269.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to establish if Marshallian and Jacobian knowledge spillovers affect job creation in the green energy sector. Whether these two effects exist is important for the number of jobs created in related fields and jobs pushed away in other sectors. In the analysis, the production efficiency, in terms of jobs and job spillovers, from inventions in solar, wind and energy efficiency, is explored through data envelopment analysis (DEA), based on the Malmquist productivity index, and tobit regression. A panel dataset of American and European firms over the period of 2002–2017 is used. The contribution to the literature is to show the role of the spillovers from the same technology sector (Marshallian externalities), and of the spillovers from more diversified activity (Jacobian externalities). Since previous empirical evidence concerning the innovation effects on the production efficiency is yet weak, the paper attempts to bridge this gap. The empirical findings suggest negative Marshallian externalities, while Jacobian externalities have no statistical impact on the job creation process. The findings are of strategic importance for governments who are developing industrial strategies for renewable energy.

Aldieri, L., Grafström, J., & Vinci, C. P. (2021). The Effect of Marshallian and Jacobian Knowledge Spillovers on Jobs in the Solar, Wind and Energy Efficiency Sector. Energies, 14(14), 4269.

An Anatomy of Failure – Wind Power Development in China

Article (with peer review)Publication

Grafström, J.

Publication year

2021

Published in

Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

Abstract

China is currently the world’s largest installer of wind power. However, with twice the installed wind capacity compared to the United States in 2015, the Chinese produce less power. The question is: Why is this the case? This article shows that Chinese grid connectivity is low, Chinese firms have few international patents, and that export is low even though production capacity far exceeds domestic production needs. Using the tools of Austrian economics, China’s wind power development from 1980 to 2016 is documented and analyzed from three angles: (a) planning and knowledge problems, (b) unproductive entrepreneurship, and (c) bureaucracy and government policy. From a theoretical standpoint, both a planning problem and an entrepreneurial problem are evident where governmental policies create misallocation of resources and a hampering of technological development.

Government Support to Renewable Energy R&D: Drivers and Strategic Interactions among EU Member States

Article (in press)Publication

Grafström, J., Söderholm, P., Gawel, E., Lehmann, P., & Strunz, S.

Publication year

2020

Published in

Economics of Innovation and New Technology

Abstract

Although the climate challenge requires proactive policies that spur innovation in the renewable energy sector, various countries commit vastly different levels of support for renewable energy R&D. This paper addresses the question why this may be the case. Specifically, the objective is to analyse the determinants of government support to renewable energy R&D in the European Union (EU), and, in doing this, we devote particular attention to the question of whether the level of this support tends to converge or diverge across EU Member States. The investigation relies on a data set of 12 EU Member States and a bias-corrected dynamic panel data estimator. We test for the presence of conditional β-convergence, and the impacts of energy dependence and electricity regulation on government R&D efforts. The findings display divergence in terms of government support to renewable energy R&D, and this result is robust across various model specifications and key assumptions. The analysis also indicates that countries with a low energy-import dependence and deregulated electricity markets tend to experience lower growth rates in government renewable energy R&D. The paper ends by discussing some implications of the results, primarily from an EU perspective.

Abstract

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