Estimation of Corporate R&D investment in Low-Carbon Energy Technologies: A Methodological Approach

Both availability and quality of data on R&D expenditure from the private sector are very limited, especially when the interest focuses on Low Carbon Energy Technologies (LCET). This has an impact on the robustness of quantitative analyses, and, consequently, on the insights deriving from them. This paper proposes a methodology to estimate R&D expenditure in distinct firms active in different sectors simultaneously, mainly for those contributing to the development of LCET. For each company, patent data are used to identify the energy technology areas and to split the R&D expenditure accordingly. The approach aims at strengthening other similar procedures already available in the literature, which will help to provide better insights for policy design. The results provide an estimate of how the private sector invests in R&D for LCET, and how this differentiates among European Union Member States. Early findings are formulated into useful insights for stakeholders and policy makers.

FIORINI Alessandro;  GEORGAKAKI Aliki;  LEPSA Bianca-Nicole;  PASIMENI Francesco;  SALTO SAURA Maria Lourdes; 

2016-08-03

University of Cambridge

JRC101552

http://www.rnd2016.eng.cam.ac.uk/,    https://www.conftool.pro/rnd2016/index.php?page=error,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC101552,