The Impact of Market Size and Users' Sophistication on Innovation: The Patterns of Demand and the Technology Life Cycle

The aim of this paper is an investigation on the role of demand in industrial dynamics. Despite the decades-long debate on demand and innovation, theory still lacks a comprehensive analytical formulation. This paper proposes a model where demand is conceived as a peculiar blend of two conditions, market size, and users sophistication. These conditions drive firms incentives to innovate. As main outcome, the paper proposes both a theoretical taxonomy of sectors and an original explanation of technological life cycle

Modeling the rebound effect in two manufacturing industries

The rebound effect refers to the phenomenon that energy savings from improvements in energy efficiency are lower than expected due to unintended second-order effects. Grasping specific mechanisms related to the rebound effect requires a good understanding of interactions between heterogonous agents on multiple markets. Otherwise, policies aimed at reducing energy use may render counter-expected and unforeseen consequences. In this paper, we propose a formal model, where technological change results from interactions on two markets: between consumers and producers in the market for final goods, and heterogeneous power plants in the electricity market. The analysis provides insights to the role of technological change, supply-demand coevolution, and status-driven consumption in explaining the rebound effect. The model is employed to compare effectiveness of economic policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions associated with production of consumer goods, namely: a tax on electricity and "nuclear obligations" to produce ten percent of electricity from nuclear energy. (author's abstract