Universität zu Köln

Ritterrath, Marten Christian ORCID: 0000-0003-2423-818X (2026). How Personal Experiences and Social Concerns Shape Green Innovation and Climate Policy. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

This dissertation studies how personal experience and social concern shape green innovation and climate policy. Chapter 1 asks whether inventors who personally experience natural disasters shift their research toward green technologies. We link French and German inventors' home addresses to disaster records and exploit random variation in the timing of exposure. One additional disaster increases green patenting by 8.1% relative to the sample mean, reaching 24% after five years. Non-green innovation remains unaffected. Survey evidence and a quality-ladder model indicate that exposure operates through expectations about green demand and future regulation, with stronger responses in competitive markets. Chapter 2 asks whether the social cost of carbon depends on society's distributive preferences. We show that in a Mirrleesian economy with a green and a brown good, the Pigouvian correction is constant along the Pareto frontier only under homogeneous environmental preferences, linear damages, and CES consumption. Relaxing any of these assumptions makes the corrective tax vary with welfare weights. In a dynamic extension, the timing of the green transition varies along the Pareto frontier in the same way. Chapter 3 studies the political economy of corrective taxes when consumers differ in moral motivation. We model neoclassical consumers alongside socially responsible consumers who internalize the social cost of carbon. A larger share of socially responsible consumers can lower equilibrium taxes and raise emissions. Moral pressure raises taxes when accepted but can trigger moral rebellion, sustaining a Pareto-inferior equilibrium. A US and UK survey supports the model's predictions. Together, the chapters show that beliefs, distributive judgments, and moral commitments govern how individuals respond to climate change through innovation, markets, and voting.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Ritterrath, Marten Christian marten.ritterrath@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2423-818X UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-809669
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Exzellenzcluster ECONtribute
Subjects:	Social sciences Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Inventors’ Choices, Personal Experience, economy of taxation, carbon taxes, ethical behavior, moral dissent English
Date of oral exam:	20 July 2026
Referee:	Name Academic Title Bindler, Anna PhD Bierbrauer, Felix Dr
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/80966