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Fueling radical and renewable innovations? An analysis of public innovation funding in Sweden, 1970-2021

Fink, Johanna LU and Taalbi, Josef LU (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:
author
and
organization
publishing date
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}},
}