Waste Technological Dynamics and Policy Effects: Evidence from OECD Patent Data

This chapter examines the effect of environmental policies on technological change, in the field of waste management. This study is conducted using patent data on 28 OECD countries over the period 1980–2005 and considers five different technological fields related to the waste sector. Even though the analysis confirms that policies actually played a positive, significant role in promoting the development of green innovations, this effect is highly non-linear and strongly depends on time. As previous works have highlighted, the technological maturity of the sector, especially if compared with other areas of environmental innovation such as renewables, is reflected in a decreasing effect of policies on innovation trends. If a first wave of policies, which dates back to the 1990s, was able to promote technological change, this effect is now less evident. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to conclude that if no policy efforts had been introduced, the slowdown in the trend of patenting in waste-related sectors would have been even more pronounced.