Exploring the dynamic diffusion of low-carbon technology research and development among enterprises: Based on an evolutionary game model with a two-level heterogeneous social network

Abstract

This study builds an evolutionary game model based on a social network composed of two sub-networks with different typologies, which respectively depict the connections of enterprises and consumers. Enterprises engage in evolutionary games to determine whether to invest in low-carbon technology (LCT) research and development (R&D), while consumers select products based on the contrast effect. Our results show that carbon taxation and subsidies can increase the diffusion of LCT R&D, but their marginal effectiveness decreases. Lowering the loan interest rate of enterprises with better green credit can promote LCT R&D diffusion, while excessively lowering the threshold will inhibit that.