Research
The research of the Energy and Technology Policy Group centers on questions related to the governance of technological change in the energy sector. Specifically, we analyze how policy, and its underlying politics affect the invention, innovation, and diffusion of new technology, and how technological change feedbacks into the policy process.
Our definition of energy sector includes the producers and users of technologies and energy services, as well as other relevant actors in the energy innovation system.
Our work is grounded in evolutionary/neo-Schumpeterian theory, and thus emphasizes the complexity and non-linearity of innovation. To understand innovation in detail, we collaborate with engineering research groups (mostly within ETH Zurich) and build on the engineering background of several of our team members. To measure policy change, we develop new quantitative approaches. When analyzing policy change, we apply and refine different theories that stress the importance of actors, insitutions and path dependency.
We use quantitative (e.g., statistical analyses, probabilistic cost models, network analyses, etc.) and qualitative methods (process tracing, interviews, etc.), which are often combined in mixed-methods designs. Empirically we focus mostly on electricity-related technological change and include both developed and developing countries.