LONDON — With the announcement in December of its decision to award new shale drilling licenses in 2014, the British government has made plain its enthusiasm for shale gas. This zeal stems from the belief that an increased domestic gas supply will drive down national prices, at once enhancing export competitiveness while addressing growing public concern over rising domestic energy bills. But this strategy is misguided: Unlike in the United States, a shale gas revolution will not bring down prices in Britain.

In Britain, proponents of increased drilling, including Prime Minister David Cameron, like to point to the success of expanded shale gas production in America. There, the ability to tap into vast resources of shale gas, thanks to developments in a technology called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has led to a significant drop in domestic gas prices, created tens of thousands of jobs and helped to move the United States away from dependence on gas imports. But America’s shale gas revolution, which was over 25 years in the making, occurred in a context that would be very difficult to replicate in today’s Britain.

A number of specific conditions helped to drive the American shale gas revolution, not least favorable geology. Much of America’s shale yields high levels of very valuable liquids, like crude oil, as well as gas. The ability to extract these liquids, produced as a byproduct of shale gas operations, has tended to make the economics of American shale operations favorable despite low domestic gas prices.

The geological know-how underpinning the success of drilling in the United States was the product of government-funded research dating as far back as the 1980s, the results of which were widely disseminated to private industry. (This sort of research would not — and should not — be funded by private companies, as fundamental science cannot be patented.) Extensive tax breaks for shale operations were allotted early on in the game, and environmental regulations were relatively weak. Capital markets were willing to provide risk finance for oil and gas operations, and the industry was dominated by a network of small, entrepreneurial companies, supported by a dynamic and highly competitive service sector. Finally, property rights in the United States make any extracted shale gas the property of the landowner, incentivizing private owners to tolerate the disruptions caused by shale operations.