Declining pollution abatement R&D in the United States: theory and evidence

摘要

Industrial R&D spending in the United States for the specific purpose of abating conventional pollution declined appreciably in real terms over the period 1973-1998, both as a share of total industrial R&D spending, and as a share of pollution abatement and control expenditure. I use industry-level panel data for this period to investigate the causes of the decline. Hypotheses are derived from a conceptual model of the forces that drive the production of universally new knowledge concerned specifically with abatement. I find evidence that the decline was caused at least in part by policy design changes, and by spillovers from other-industry pollution abatement R&D substituting for R&D spending in the focal industry.