IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v135y2017icp195-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional Net Impacts and Social Distribution Effects of Promoting Renewable Energies in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Többen, Johannes

Abstract

This paper concerns the net effects of promoting renewable energies on value added and disposable income in Germany, as well as their distribution among regions and income brackets. Since its entry into force, the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) has stimulated tremendous investments in renewable energy capacities by guaranteeing investors a fixed price per kWh as well as a preferred feed into the grid over electricity from conventional sources. The policy measures are financed by a surcharge on electricity prices. In recent years, a controversy has arisen about potentially negative regional and social distribution effects. In this paper, multiregional price and quantity input-output models with endogenous heterogeneous households are used to trace the indirect impacts of the EEG on value added and disposable income through the complex network of regional value chains. Our findings suggest that the generation of electricity from renewable sources itself leads to small positive impacts on industries, but leads to a significant drain on household income and has regressive distributive effects. However, investment in new capacities may possibly transform these negative impacts into a positive direction for the majority of households.

Suggested Citation

  • Többen, Johannes, 2017. "Regional Net Impacts and Social Distribution Effects of Promoting Renewable Energies in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 195-208.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:135:y:2017:i:c:p:195-208
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.01.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916302178
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.01.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Philip Ulrich & Martin Distelkamp & Ulrike Lehr, 2012. "Employment Effects of Renewable Energy Expansion on a Regional Level—First Results of a Model-Based Approach for Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Holger Techert & Judith Niehues & Hubertus Bardt & Erik Gawel & Klaas Korte & Andreas Löschel & Florens Flues & Peter Heindl, 2012. "Verteilungswirkungen des Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetzes," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 92(8), pages 507-519, August.
    3. Frondel, Manuel & Ritter, Nolan & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Vance, Colin, 2010. "Economic impacts from the promotion of renewable energy technologies: The German experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4048-4056, August.
    4. Butler, Lucy & Neuhoff, Karsten, 2008. "Comparison of feed-in tariff, quota and auction mechanisms to support wind power development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1854-1867.
    5. Miyazawa, Kenichi, 1968. "Input-Output Analysis and Interrelational Income Multiplier as a Matrix," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 8(2), pages 39-58, February.
    6. repec:rri:wpaper:201101 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Speck, Stefan, 1999. "Energy and carbon taxes and their distributional implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 659-667, October.
    8. Abbas Valadkhani & William F. Mitchell, 2002. "Assessing the Impact of Changes in Petroleum Prices on Inflation and Household Expenditures in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 35(2), pages 122-132, June.
    9. Langni, Ole & Diekmann, Jochen & Lehr, Ulrike, 2009. "Advanced mechanisms for the promotion of renewable energy--Models for the future evolution of the German Renewable Energy Act," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1289-1297, April.
    10. Oosterhaven, Jan, 1984. "A family of square and rectangular interregional input-output tables and models," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 565-582, November.
    11. Wu, Libo & Li, Jing & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2013. "Inflationary effect of oil-price shocks in an imperfect market: A partial transmission input–output analysis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 354-369.
    12. Casler, Stephen D. & Rafiqui, Aisha, 1993. "Evaluating Fuel Tax Equity: Direct and Indirect Distributional Effects," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(2), pages 197-205, June.
    13. Kirk Hamilton & Grant Cameron, 1994. "Simulating the Distributional Effects of a Canadian Carbon Tax," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 20(4), pages 385-399, December.
    14. Randall Jackson & Walter Schwarm, 2011. "Accounting foundations for interregional commodity-by-industry input-output models," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 187-196, October.
    15. Lehr, Ulrike & Nitsch, Joachim & Kratzat, Marlene & Lutz, Christian & Edler, Dietmar, 2008. "Renewable energy and employment in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 108-117, January.
    16. Hillebrand, Bernhard & Buttermann, Hans Georg & Behringer, Jean Marc & Bleuel, Michaela, 2006. "The expansion of renewable energies and employment effects in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3484-3494, December.
    17. Wier, Mette & Birr-Pedersen, Katja & Jacobsen, Henrik Klinge & Klok, Jacob, 2005. "Are CO2 taxes regressive? Evidence from the Danish experience," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 239-251, January.
    18. Casler, Stephen D. & Rafiqui, Aisha, 1993. "Evaluating Fuel Tax Equity: Direct and Indirect Distributional Effects," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(2), pages 197-205, June.
    19. Neuwahl, Frederik & Löschel, Andreas & Mongelli, Ignazio & Delgado, Luis, 2008. "Employment impacts of EU biofuels policy: Combining bottom-up technology information and sectoral market simulations in an input-output framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 447-460, December.
    20. Lehr, Ulrike & Lutz, Christian & Edler, Dietmar, 2012. "Green jobs? Economic impacts of renewable energy in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 358-364.
    21. Lesser, Jonathan A. & Su, Xuejuan, 2008. "Design of an economically efficient feed-in tariff structure for renewable energy development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 981-990, March.
    22. Fatemeh Bazzazan & Peter Batey, 2003. "The Development and Empirical Testing of Extended Input-Output Price Models," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 69-86, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lyu, Yuan & He, Yongxiu & Zhou, Jinghan & Xie, Yuxin, 2023. "Prosumer standby fee design: Solving the inequity problem of China's county-wide photovoltaic project promotion," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 309-320.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Grösche & Carsten Schröder, 2014. "On the redistributive effects of Germany’s feed-in tariff," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1339-1383, June.
    2. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2018. "Distributional Impacts of Climate Mitigation Policies - a Meta-Analysis," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1776, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Winter, Simon & Schlesewsky, Lisa, 2019. "The German feed-in tariff revisited - an empirical investigation on its distributional effects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 344-356.
    4. Blazejczak, Jürgen & Braun, Frauke G. & Edler, Dietmar & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2014. "Economic effects of renewable energy expansion: A model-based analysis for Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1070-1080.
    5. Martin, Nigel J. & Rice, John L., 2017. "Examining the use of concept analysis and mapping software for renewable energy feed-in tariff design," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 211-220.
    6. Duscha, Vicki & Fougeyrollas, Arnaud & Nathani, Carsten & Pfaff, Matthias & Ragwitz, Mario & Resch, Gustav & Schade, Wolfgang & Breitschopf, Barbara & Walz, Rainer, 2016. "Renewable energy deployment in Europe up to 2030 and the aim of a triple dividend," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 314-323.
    7. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2021. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A Meta-Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(1), pages 1-42, January.
    8. Gulmira Azretbergenova & Beybit Syzdykov & Talgat Niyazov & Turysbekova Gulzhan & Nazira Yskak, 2021. "The Relationship between Renewable Energy Production and Employment in European Union Countries: Panel Data Analysis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(3), pages 20-26.
    9. Wiser, Ryan & Bolinger, Mark & Heath, Garvin & Keyser, David & Lantz, Eric & Macknick, Jordan & Mai, Trieu & Millstein, Dev, 2016. "Long-term implications of sustained wind power growth in the United States: Potential benefits and secondary impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 146-158.
    10. Cameron, Lachlan & van der Zwaan, Bob, 2015. "Employment factors for wind and solar energy technologies: A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 160-172.
    11. Christian Lutz & Lisa Becker & Andreas Kemmler, 2021. "Socioeconomic Effects of Ambitious Climate Mitigation Policies in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, June.
    12. Dorothee Boccanfuso & Antonio Estache & Luc Savard, 2011. "The Intra-country Distributional Impact of Policies to Fight Climate Change: A Survey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 97-117.
    13. Yushchenko, Alisa & de Bono, Andrea & Chatenoux, Bruno & Kumar Patel, Martin & Ray, Nicolas, 2018. "GIS-based assessment of photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) generation potential in West Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2088-2103.
    14. Luigi Aldieri & Jonas Grafström & Kristoffer Sundström & Concetto Paolo Vinci, 2019. "Wind Power and Job Creation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    15. Auer, Benjamin R., 2016. "How does Germany's green energy policy affect electricity market volatility? An application of conditional autoregressive range models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 621-628.
    16. Sievers, Luisa & Breitschopf, Barbara & Pfaff, Matthias & Schaffer, Axel, 2019. "Macroeconomic impact of the German energy transition and its distribution by sectors and regions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 191-204.
    17. Cox, Michael & Peichl, Andreas & Pestel, Nico & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2014. "Labor demand effects of rising electricity prices: Evidence for Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 266-277.
    18. Nico Pestel, 2019. "Employment effects of green energy policies," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-76, December.
    19. Llera, E. & Scarpellini, S. & Aranda, A. & Zabalza, I., 2013. "Forecasting job creation from renewable energy deployment through a value-chain approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 262-271.
    20. Yushchenko, Alisa & Patel, Martin Kumar, 2016. "Contributing to a green energy economy? A macroeconomic analysis of an energy efficiency program operated by a Swiss utility," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1304-1320.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:135:y:2017:i:c:p:195-208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.