Speaker:

Frank Neffke, Team Leader, Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Title:

On the right track? Extracting climate change mitigation pathways from patent data.

Abstract:

Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of habitats are increasingly putting firms and policy makers under pressure to transition to a more sustainable economy. As a consequence, so-called “green technologies” have rapidly attracted attention. However, these green technologies are no coherent or homogeneous field of expertise, neither from the perspective of individual workers, nor from the perspective of the collective know-how of local economies. On the contrary, different polluting (“brown”) activities require different mitigation solutions. In this paper, we aim to learn "canonical green pathways" from patent data using text analysis and dimensionality reduction techniques. We find substantial heterogeneity in these pathways. Some can be widely applied across the economy, whereas others are limited to specific technological areas. Next, we study how our green pathways help to understand the specific opportunities and challenges that firms and cities face in their own green transition.

Speaker Bio:

Frank Neffke has been the team leader of the Science of Cities group at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna since 2021. Before joining CSH, Frank was the research director of the Growth Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. Frank’s research focuses on economic transformation and growth. He has written on a variety of topics, such as structural transformation and new growth paths in regional economies, economic complexity, division of labor and teams, the consequences of job displacement and the future of work.

Location:

In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/93670031716
Passcode: NICO2024

About the Speaker Series:

Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.

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