Policy-Induced Technology Adoption: Evidence from the U.S. Lead Phasedown

The theory of environmental regulation suggests that economic instruments, such as taxes and tradable permits, create more effective technology adoption incentives than conventional regulatory standards. We explore this issue for an important industry undergoing technological responses to a dramatic decrease in allowed pollution levels—the petroleum industry’s phasedown of lead in gasoline. Using a panel of refineries from 1971 to 1995, we provide some of the first direct evidence that alternative policies affect the pattern of adoption in expected ways. Importantly, we find that the tradable permit system used during the lead phasedown provided incentives for more efficient technology adoption decisions. Where environmentally appropriate, this suggests that flexible market-based regulation can achieve environmental goals while providing better incentives for technology diffusion.technology, adoption, diffusion, environment, regulation, lead, gasoline, tradable permit, incentive-based policy

Deregulating technology transfer in agriculture : reform's impact on turkey in the 1980s

Turkey is one of a handful of developing countries that have liberalized regulation of agricultural inputs and welcome private firms delivering technology and inputs. The authors show that Turkish regulatory reform affecting seeds and other inputs in the 1980s: 1) Greatly increased private technology transfer into Turkey. 2) Encouraged market entry for more foreign and domestic companies involved in production and trade in Turkey. 3) Allowed private firms to increase their share of input markets. 4) Where inputs brought new technology, allowed farmers to significantly increase yields and production. The authors recommend that the World Bank and other donors involved with agriculture pay more attention to the regulation of inputs in developing countries. They also recommend that developing country governments revise regulations to leave choices about technology performance to farmers and markets - and to focus instead on externalities, removing unnecessary obstacles to provide technology transfer through the production and trade of inputs. Other countries that have similarly reformed the regulation of agricultural inputs include Chile (in the 1970s), Bangladesh and India (at the end of the 1980s), Malawi (in 1995-96), and Romania (in 1997).Knowledge Economy,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

The Stringency of Environmental Regulation and the 'Porter Hypothesis'

Most empirical evidence indicates that the costs of environmental regulation represent a minor fraction of total production costs. This finding is at odds with the assumption of stringent environmental regulation of both propo-nents and opponents of the ''Porter Hypothesis''. A possible explanation may be provided by examining the nego-tiation of environmental regulation in a ''political market''. In this market, stakeholder attempt to ensure their pre-ferred level of stringency through influencing political decision makers. In most cases, the equilibrium stringency will require pollution abatement levels that can be met with best available technology (BAT) or predictable ad-vances over BAT. Accordingly, net benefits from environmental regulation as claimed by a ''strong version'' of the ''Porter Hypothesis'' are unlikely to emerge. On the other hand, competitiveness is equally unlikely to suffer. How-ever, compliance may impose disproportionate costs on technological laggards. The argument is illustrated with evidence from a study on the techno-economic consequences of Austrian VOC emission standards.economics of technology ;

A Multilevel Analysis of the Effect of Prompting Self-Regulation in Technology-Delivered Instruction

We used a within-subjects design and multilevel modeling in two studies to examine the effect of prompting self-regulation, an intervention designed to improve learning from technology-delivered instruction. The results of two studies indicate trainees who were prompted to self-regulate gradually improved their knowledge and performance over time, relative to the control condition. In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that trainees’ cognitive ability and self-efficacy moderated the effect of the prompts. Prompting self-regulation resulted in stronger learning gains over time for trainees with higher ability or higher self-efficacy. Overall, the two studies demonstrate that prompting self-regulation had a gradual, positive effect on learning, and the strength of the effect increased as trainees progressed through training. The results are consistent with theory suggesting self-regulation is a cyclical process that has a gradual effect on learning and highlight the importance of using a within-subjects design in self-regulation. research

Adaptive Guidance: Enhancing Self-Regulation, Knowledge, and Performance in Technology-Based Training

Considerable research has examined the effects of giving trainees control over their learning (Steinberg, 1977, 1989; Williams, 1993). The most consistent finding of this research has been that trainees do not make good instructional use of the control they are given. Yet, today’s technologically based training systems often provide individuals with significant control over their learning (Brown, 2001). This creates a dilemma that must be addressed if technology is going to be used to create more effective training systems. The current study extended past research that has examined the effects of providing trainees with some form of advisement or guidance in addition to learner control and examined the impact of an instructional strategy, adaptive guidance, on learning and performance in a complex training environment. Overall, it was found that adaptive guidance had a substantial effect on the nature of trainees’ study and practice, self-regulation, knowledge acquired, and performance

Evaluation of low wing-loading fuel conservative, short-haul transports

Fuel conservation that could be attained with two technology advancements, Q fan propulsion system and active control technology (ACT) was studied. Aircraft incorporating each technology were sized for a Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) field length of 914 meters (3,000 feet), 148 passengers, and a 926 kilometer (500 nautical mile) mission. The cruise Mach number was .70 at 10100 meter (33,000 foot) altitude. The improvement resulting from application of the Q fan propulsion system was computed relative to an optimized fuel conservative transport design. The performance improvements resulting from application of ACT technology were relative to the optimized Q fan propulsion system configuration

Foreign Technology Acquisition Policy and Firm Performance in Japan, 1957-1970: The Japanese Industrial Policy Revisited (Published in "International Journal of Industrial Organization", Sep2005, Vol. 23 Issue 7/8, p563-586. )

We examine the cause and effect of technology acquisition policy on firm performance, using firm-level data between 1957 and 1970. Our results indicate that in the technology acquisition licensing, the government screened a firm's application, based on (i) the industry that the firm belonged to and (ii) firm's sales ranking in the industry. As a result, large but inefficient firms tended to acquire more technologies before the deregulation. Despite such screening process, the technology acquisition policy did not result in a serious failure. The firms that acquired technology grew much faster than those did not during the regulation period.

Unions, Innovation, and Technology Adoption: New insights from the cross-country evidence

There is currently no consensus regarding the effect of unions on technology. We apply meta-regression analysis to the extant econometric studies and find that unions depress investment in new technology. However, this adverse effect has been declining over time and is moderated by country differences in industrial relations and regulations: The adverse effect appears to increase with labor market flexibility. Unions also have an adverse effect on technology adoption. The paper considers both the direct and indirect effects of unions and shows that their effect on technology is larger than their effect on profitability and physical capital. The size of the union effect on technology is compared to the effects of human capital, industry concentration, firm size, growth, profitability, and physical capital.unions, R&D, innovation, technology adoption, regulation, meta-regression analysis

Technology Adoption and Aggregate Energy Efficiency

Improved technology is often cited as a means to alter the otherwise difficult trade-off between the economic burden of regulation and environmental damage. Focusing on energy-saving technologies that mitigate the threat of climate change, we find that both energy prices and financial health influence technology adoption among a sample of industrial plants in four heavily polluting sectors. Based on a model linking technology adoption to growth in aggregate efficiency, we estimate that a doubling of energy prices, after raising the growth rate to 2.1%, would require slightly more than 50 years to generate a 50% improvement in aggregate efficiency relative to the baseline forecast.energy efficiency, endogenous technological change, technology adoption

Environmental Compliance Through Regulation Technology

RegTech (short for Regulatory technology or regulation technology) simply put, is the use of technology to enhance compliance with regulations. As RegTech has developed, some have been quick to define RegTech as something for the financial sector, because it gained prominence with its use in the financial industry. It is true that RegTech gained prominence when it found success in the financial industry and became an important part of FinTech. However, RegTech is its own separate field within technology, which is simply the extrapolation of the ideas around automating compliance and providing insight, and can be applied to many different areas of compliance. Essentially, as long as you have regulations or rules, you can use regulation technology to streamline and ensure compliance. RegTech, or regulation/regulatory technology is simply using technology to apply the vast sets of rules and regulations that an area of law imposes, to company practices, creating checks and balances. RegTech can therefore be applied to many different areas of compliance with regulations. This article explores RegTech as a stand-alone field, and then explores possibilities of how RegTech can intersect with regulatory compliance specifically for environmental regulation and compliance, applying RegTech to environmental compliance, permitting, within the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I am proposing that RegTech should be adopted, based on the requirement for agencies to use the Best Available Technology, including the EPA. Finally, I believe for this to be implemented, it must be a concerted effort between industry, the legislature, and agencies like the EPA. Organizations who educate congress on the importance of technology like this also play an important role