Trends and determinants of energy innovations: patents, environmental policies and oil prices

This paper examines the relationship between energy innovations, environmental policies and oil prices. With a panel of 19 OECD countries over the period 1990–2013, we test how the stringency of environmental policies has affected the intensity of energy patents, while controlling for the effect of oil prices and other country-level variables. We found that the overall level of policy stringency has exerted a more significant impact than individual country measures. Moreover, the recent reduction of energy patenting is discussed, especially in the light of the staggering drop of oil prices.