Fueling radical and renewable innovations? An analysis of public innovation funding in Sweden, 1970-2021
(2024) In Lund Papers in Economic History- Abstract
- In the face of climate change, governments are scaling up public investments in mitigation efforts and green technologies. However, critics question the ability of public funding agencies to promote the most promising innovations. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting a long-term database, that directly links Swedish innovations to public funding between 1970 and 2021. We use logistic regression models to analyze what innovations are most likely to receive public funding. A remarkably high share of the most radical innovations relied on public funding: 43% over the whole period, reaching 55% in the last decade. Moreover, renewable energy innovations attracted increasing public support over time.
Those developed after 2000... (More) - In the face of climate change, governments are scaling up public investments in mitigation efforts and green technologies. However, critics question the ability of public funding agencies to promote the most promising innovations. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting a long-term database, that directly links Swedish innovations to public funding between 1970 and 2021. We use logistic regression models to analyze what innovations are most likely to receive public funding. A remarkably high share of the most radical innovations relied on public funding: 43% over the whole period, reaching 55% in the last decade. Moreover, renewable energy innovations attracted increasing public support over time.
Those developed after 2000 are twice as likely to be publicly funded. Contrary to received notions that governments are unable to pick winners, our findings highlight that public spending in Sweden has shaped market conditions, aptly funding the most radical innovations, and that public funding agencies
played a crucial role in climate change mitigation efforts by supporting the development of renewable energy technologies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d3c0d84e-22fe-4577-894b-6a428a2170e0
- author
- Fink, Johanna LU and Taalbi, Josef LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Lund Papers in Economic History
- issue
- 2024:260
- publisher
- Department of Economic History, Lund University
- project
- SWINNO 3.0 Significant Swedish technological Innovations from 1970 until now
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d3c0d84e-22fe-4577-894b-6a428a2170e0
- date added to LUP
- 2024-10-24 16:51:52
- date last changed
- 2025-06-23 15:20:00
@misc{d3c0d84e-22fe-4577-894b-6a428a2170e0, abstract = {{In the face of climate change, governments are scaling up public investments in mitigation efforts and green technologies. However, critics question the ability of public funding agencies to promote the most promising innovations. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting a long-term database, that directly links Swedish innovations to public funding between 1970 and 2021. We use logistic regression models to analyze what innovations are most likely to receive public funding. A remarkably high share of the most radical innovations relied on public funding: 43% over the whole period, reaching 55% in the last decade. Moreover, renewable energy innovations attracted increasing public support over time.<br/>Those developed after 2000 are twice as likely to be publicly funded. Contrary to received notions that governments are unable to pick winners, our findings highlight that public spending in Sweden has shaped market conditions, aptly funding the most radical innovations, and that public funding agencies<br/>played a crucial role in climate change mitigation efforts by supporting the development of renewable energy technologies.}}, author = {{Fink, Johanna and Taalbi, Josef}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{2024:260}}, publisher = {{Department of Economic History, Lund University}}, series = {{Lund Papers in Economic History}}, title = {{Fueling radical and renewable innovations? An analysis of public innovation funding in Sweden, 1970-2021}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/199468817/LUPEH_260.pdf}}, year = {{2024}}, }