Exploring the role of instrument design and instrument interaction for eco-innovation: a survey-based analysis of renewable energy innovation in Germany

Empirical research on eco-innovation has produced a substantive body of literature on the relevance of regulation for stimulating such innovation. Much of this work on the role of policy for eco-innovation relies on econometric analyses of company survey data. In this regard, the eco-innovation module introduced in 2008/9 in the Community Innova-tion Survey serves as an important data source that has helped improve our under-standing of the role of environmental and innovation policy for eco-innovation in the Eu-ropean Union (EU). However, so far, this data source has provided only limited oppor-tunities to generate insights into the role of instrument design and instrument interaction for eco-innovation. In this chapter, we present a first attempt to measure such aspects in a company innovation survey based on the example of renewable energy innovation in Germany. In particular, we explore to what extent the design of the German Renewa-ble Energy Sources Act (and the interaction of its feed-in tariffs with the EU emissions trading system) correlates with innovation in renewable power generation technologies. We find instrument design features but not instrument type to be related to eco-innovation. In addition, our exploratory study provides evidence for an interaction effect between climate policy and renewables support policy. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for future research on the role of policy in eco-innovation

A review and perspective on context-dependent genetic effects of extra-pair mating in birds

Schmoll T. A review and perspective on context-dependent genetic effects of extra-pair mating in birds. Journal of Ornithology. 2011;152(S1):265-277.The evolutionary origin and the maintenance of extra-pair mating in birds has been a major field of study in the last decades, but no consensus has been reached on the adaptive significance of this behaviour for female birds. The genetic benefit hypothesis proposes that extra-pair sires provide alleles of superior quality and/or better compatibility compared to the social mate, resulting in offspring of higher reproductive value. One frequently adopted approach to test this idea compares the performance of maternal half-siblings in broods with multiple paternity. However, results from such comparisons are inconsistent. Here I discuss the concept that the magnitude of genetic fitness benefits from extra-pair mating depends on the environmental context. To date, context-dependent genetic effects in maternal half-sibling comparisons have been demonstrated for only five passerine bird species. In none of the studies were the crucial environmental conditions experimentally manipulated, and the potentially confounding effects of differential maternal investment in relation to paternity were also largely not accounted for. A number of high-quality data sets on fitness consequences of extra-pair mating behaviour are available that could be (re-) analysed for context-dependence given that relevant gradients of the environment have been recorded and their use is well justified a priori. Such relevant variation may include, for example, the time of breeding in temperate regions, hatching order, but also offspring sex. Primarily, however, experimental approaches are required that systematically and gradually vary fitness-relevant environmental gradients, such as food availability or parasite abundance, and analyse the resulting differential fitness effects while controlling for differential investment. The context dependency of the genetic effects of extra-pair mating behaviour may offer an opportunity for reconciling conflicting results from different extra-pair paternity studies within and across species. More generally, it could allow a better understanding of under which environmental conditions will selection act to maintain a female mating bias towards extra-pair males with potentially far-reaching implications for the ecology and evolution of mating preferences and the maintenance of genetic variation in (sexually) selected traits