The green transition of firms: The role of evolutionary competition, adjustment costs, transition risk, and green technology progress

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Radi, Davide, Westerhoff, Frank
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Radi, Davide
Westerhoff, Frank
author_facet Radi, Davide
Westerhoff, Frank
contents We propose an evolutionary competition model to investigate the green transition of firms, highlighting the role of adjustment costs, dynamically adjusted transition risk, and green technology progress in this process. Firms base their decisions to adopt either green or brown technologies on relative performance. To incorporate the costs of switching to another technology into their decision-making process, we generalize the classical exponential replicator dynamics. Our global analysis reveals that increasing transition risk, e.g., by threatening to impose stricter environmental regulations, effectively incentivizes the green transition. Economic policy recommendations derived from our model further suggest maintaining high transition risk regardless of the industry's level of greenness. Subsidizing the costs of adopting green technologies can reduce the risk of a failed green transition. While advances in green technologies can amplify the effects of green policies, they do not completely eliminate the possibility of a failed green transition. Finally, evolutionary pressures favor the green transition when green technologies are profitable.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_20379
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The green transition of firms: The role of evolutionary competition, adjustment costs, transition risk, and green technology progress
Radi, Davide
Westerhoff, Frank
Theoretical Economics
We propose an evolutionary competition model to investigate the green transition of firms, highlighting the role of adjustment costs, dynamically adjusted transition risk, and green technology progress in this process. Firms base their decisions to adopt either green or brown technologies on relative performance. To incorporate the costs of switching to another technology into their decision-making process, we generalize the classical exponential replicator dynamics. Our global analysis reveals that increasing transition risk, e.g., by threatening to impose stricter environmental regulations, effectively incentivizes the green transition. Economic policy recommendations derived from our model further suggest maintaining high transition risk regardless of the industry's level of greenness. Subsidizing the costs of adopting green technologies can reduce the risk of a failed green transition. While advances in green technologies can amplify the effects of green policies, they do not completely eliminate the possibility of a failed green transition. Finally, evolutionary pressures favor the green transition when green technologies are profitable.
title The green transition of firms: The role of evolutionary competition, adjustment costs, transition risk, and green technology progress
topic Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.20379