I cordially invite you to attend the presentation of my thesis titled "Impacts of long-term regulations on R&D activities for environmental technology".
Time: June 6 (Monday), 12:10pm - 12:50pm Place: 3556 Dana Building (SNRE)
Abstract: This thesis conducts an empirical analysis to support my hypothes is that earlier announcements of regulations for automobile exhaust emissions have stimulated research and development (R&D) activities in Japan and the U.S. As a result, the evidence is found in Japanese data that long-term regulations have played an important role to increase the number of patents which is considered as an index of R&D activities.
However, in U.S. data, I cannot find any evidence that regulations stimulate R&D activities. This difference might be caused by the system of how the regulations are discussed and announced. In Japan, regulations for automobile exhaust emissions are administrative issues; while they are mainly legislative issues in the U.S. This difference makes U.S. automobile-related companies have more uncertainties about details of the regulations than does Japanese companies. Certainty about the regulations makes Japanese regulations concerned about technological possibility and encourage automobile-related companies to innovate technology for air pollutant reduction more than do U.S. regulations.