Financial Constraints of Firms with Environmental Innovation

Using the Mannheim Innovation Panel, we explore whether Environmental Innovator Firms (EIFs) have higher financial needs and are more financially constrained than Non-Environmental Innovator firms (OIFs). We find that EIFs are more likely to have higher latent financial need in comparison to OIFs. This implies that EIFs have latent projects that they have not yet realized, but would implement if they had the financial means to do so. EIFs adopting environmental technologies have higher financial needs compared to firms that do not. One tentative conclusion from this finding is that public subsidies might mitigate the financial restrictions of environmental innovation.