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... bedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Die Discussion Papers dienen einer möglichst schnellen Verbreitung von neueren Forschungsarbeiten des ZEW. Die Beiträge liegen in alleiniger Verantwortung der Autoren und stellen nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des ZEW dar. Environmental regulations often want to stimulate the generation and adoption of eco-efficient inno- vations. An important argument in the public debate is also the creation of new markets for environmentally benign products, processes and services that other countries adopt and therefore generate export opportunities for the pioneering country. The research so far concentrated on the question how national environmental regulation can induce innovations. The question addressed in this paper is whether environmental regulations can create lead markets, enabling local firms to export innovations that are induced by local market conditions and national regulations. We identify relevant factors for lead markets of environmental innovations: price advantages, demand advantages, transfer advantages, export advantages and strict regulation (Porter-effect). The approach is applied to two case studies: fuel-efficient passenger cars and wind energy. In both cases, one country adopted the innovation firstly. Later, other countries followed the same innovation design favoured by the lead market. The lead market became a large exporter in the wind generation and car industry respectively. We discuss the regulations employed and the reasons for the international success of the innovations induced by them. We draw some conclusions concerning the relevance of our identified lead market factors for the two cases. Price advantages seem to be a relevant albeit not dominating driver of the international diffusion of the innovation in both cases. Demand advantages are crucial for the lead market of fuel-efficient cars since other criteria of global demand are still more important than environmental criteria. Transfer advantages can be identified in both cases since the R&D activities of the German automobile firms and the respective efforts of the Danish wind industry are intensively watched by other countries. Export advantages address the similarity of market conditions at home and abroad. They are more important in the wind energy case than for fuel-efficient cars. Finally the market structure or Porter effect has proved to be relevant in both cases. In the case of wind energy strict regulation, together with an anticipated regulatory trend as described above, can be seen as the dominating success factor for Denmark as a lead market. Without strict regulations and international policy diffusion renewable energies would not be competitive. For fuel efficient cars the Porter effect is less important since environmental regulation is to date still outweighed by consumer preferences that steer diametrically into the opposite direction. Summing up, all lead market factors seem to be at least relevant for environmental innovations. The importance of the Porter effect depends on its relation to global demand and regulatory effects. If national regulation is supported by global demand or regulatory trends, a strong effect can be identified, as was shown in the cases of wind energy in Denmark and Diesel-High-pressure-direct-injection in Germany. If it is not supported, the market remains idiosyncratic, as could be seen in the failure of the the Golf Ecomatic. Abstract: Environmental regulations often want to stimulate the generation and adoption of ecoefficient innovations. An important argument in the public debate is also the creation of new markets for environmentally benign products, processes and services that other countries adopt and therefore generate export opportunities for the pioneering country. The research so far concentrated on the question on how national environmental regulation can induce innovations. The question addressed in this paper is whether environmental regulations can create lead markets, enabling local firms to export innovations that are induced by local market conditions and national regulations. We identify relevant factors for lead markets of environmental innovations. So far, the lead market concept in innovation economics has only been applied to innovations in general. We extend the lead market model to environmentally friendly innovations, considering their peculiarities, in particular the public good character of environmental benefits and the role of regulations. The approach is applied to two case studies: fuel-efficient passenger cars and wind energy. In both cases, one country adopted the innovation first. Later, other countries followed the same innovation design favoured by the lead market. The lead market became a large exporter in the wind generation and car industry respectively. We discuss the regulations employed and the reasons for the international success of the innovations induced by them. We find that strict regulation has created lead markets when it was supported by a global demand or regulatory trend.