Innovation and market regulation: evidence from the European electricity industry
研究了1990-2009年间欧盟电力行业放松监管对创新强度的影响，发现减少垂直整合（即电网与发电、供电分离）能促进专利活动，对政策制定者和能源研究者有参考价值。
This paper studies the effects of changes in the level of product market regulation on the industry-level innovation intensity in the EU electricity sector during years 1990–2009. In order to test the impact of deregulatory policies on the propensity to innovate in energy technologies, we match data on R&D budgets and European Patent Office patent applications from International Energy Agency and Eurostat Databases with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development indexes of product market regulation. The analysis addresses innovations in the traditional electricity-related technologies, but keeping aside renewable energy technologies. Findings show an increase in patenting activities following market deregulation, measured along three factors: entry barriers, public ownership and vertical integration. In particular, econometric results suggest that policies aimed at reducing vertical integration – i.e. to unbundle networks from energy generation and supply – have a positive impact on innovation activity. Results are robust to the introduction of controls for country-level public R&D expenditures in the electricity field.