Economic Growth and Scientific Knowledge as Determinants of Innovation Uptake in a Situation of Uncertainty About Environmental or Health Risk

With growing concern for potential negative impacts to health or the environment of new types consumer goods reaching market, a major challenge both policy makers and producers is understand conditions uptake innovation in situation uncertainty concerning risk related these products. Our contribution studies effects economic growth production scientific knowledge on risk, uptake. It focuses case polycarbonate, an intermediate good that requires use bisphenol A (BPA), suspected endocrine disruptor. Polycarbonate widely used material found automotive but also baby-bottles other plastics. Using Japanese time-series data, autoregressive distributed lag approach applied estimate relationship between aggregate use, about this material. sales are as dependent variable. First, hypothesis environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) tested. Then, quarterly quantity global number articles dealing with BPA included model. Results support EKC theory so far model presents inverted-U-shaped link polycarbonate use. There inverted-U-shape publications sales. In words, paper shows that, first phase, may have no impact