Stefano Carattini

Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Technology

Stefano Carattini has investigated the role of social spillovers in the adoption of solar photovoltaic technology. Social spillovers are a key feature of technological diffusion, but in the presence of cultural barriers, they may be hampered. Mr Carattini and his collaborators have exploited exogenous cultural borders and a quasi-natural experiment to investigate the role of social spillovers in the adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. With data on about 19,000 solar PV systems for Switzerland, they have assessed whether proximity to a language border implies a lower rate of PV adoption. The results confirm that a cultural border does hinder social spillovers. The effects measured are persistent over time, and consistent with the role of localised social spillovers in the adoption of clean technologies.

Mr Carattini’s research focuses on the political economy and the effectiveness of environmental policy. He has worked on (internal) carbon pricing and pricing garbage by the bag as well as more broadly on cooperation in the climate commons and the diffusion of pro-environmental behaviours and technologies.

Stefano Carattini will be visiting from June 11 to 20 June 2018 and will present his research findings on the diffusion of solar PV technologies, which he has examined for the United States and Switzerland, using administrative data, survey data and randomised controlled trails.

Mr Carattini is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where he has been a researcher since 2016. He is also affiliated with the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, since 2015. He was the recipient of the 2015 Heinz König Young Scholar Award, delivered by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research, ZEW. His research has been funded, among others, by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, the EU Cost Action INOGOV and the Cantons of Geneva and Vaud, Switzerland. He obtained a PhD in Economics from the University of Barcelona, an MSc in Economics from the University of Lausanne and a BA in Socio-economics from the University of Geneva.