Determinants of environmental innovation in US manufacturing industries

This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of environmental innovation. We employ panel data models to study how environmental innovation by US manufacturing industries responded to changes in pollution abatement expenditures and regulatory enforcement during the period 1983 through 1992. We find that (1) environmental innovation (as measured by the number of successful environmental patent applications granted to the industry) responded to increases in pollution abatement expenditures, however, (2) increased monitoring and enforcement activities related to existing regulations did not provide any additional incentive to innovate. We also find some empirical evidence that environmental innovation is more likely to occur in industries that are internationally competitive.