IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v239y2024ics0047272724001488.html

Do renewable energy investments create local jobs?

Author

Listed:
  • Fabra, Natalia
  • Gutiérrez, Eduardo
  • Lacuesta, Aitor
  • Ramos, Roberto

Abstract

Globally, renewable energy projects often face local opposition despite the potential for job creation. Analyzing data from over 3,900 Spanish municipalities (2017–2021), we find that new jobs frequently do not remain in the host communities. Solar projects show stronger employment and unemployment multipliers compared to wind, reflecting differing task and skill requirements. Beyond the labor market impacts, residents benefit from the investments through greater public spending and increased per capita income. However, these effects are modest, particularly in the case of small to medium-sized plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabra, Natalia & Gutiérrez, Eduardo & Lacuesta, Aitor & Ramos, Roberto, 2024. "Do renewable energy investments create local jobs?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:239:y:2024:i:c:s0047272724001488
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272724001488
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105212?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 look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Germeshausen, Robert & Heim, Sven & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2025. "Support for renewable energy: The case of wind power," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    2. Taylor, Alan M. & Dube, Arindrajit & Girardi, Daniele & Jordà , Òscar, 2023. "A Local Projections Approach to Difference-in-Differences Event Studies," CEPR Discussion Papers 18141, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    3. Sunak, Yasin & Madlener, Reinhard, 2016. "The impact of wind farm visibility on property values: A spatial difference-in-differences analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 79-91.
    4. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier d'Haultfoeuille & Félix Pasquier & Doulo Sow & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare, 2025. "Difference-in-Differences for Continuous Treatments and Instruments with Stayers," Working Papers hal-03873926, HAL.
    5. Dröes, Martijn I. & Koster, Hans R.A., 2021. "Wind turbines, solar farms, and house prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    7. Sylvain Leduc & Daniel Wilson, 2013. "Roads to Prosperity or Bridges to Nowhere? Theory and Evidence on the Impact of Public Infrastructure Investment," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(1), pages 89-142.
    8. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D’Haultfœuille, 2023. "Two-way fixed effects and differences-in-differences with heterogeneous treatment effects: a survey," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 1-30.
    9. Daniel J. Wilson, 2012. "Fiscal Spending Jobs Multipliers: Evidence from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 251-282, August.
    10. Eduardo Gutiérrez & Enrique Moral‐Benito & Daniel Oto‐Peralías & Roberto Ramos, 2023. "The spatial distribution of population in Spain: An anomaly in European perspective," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 728-750, June.
    11. James Feyrer & Erin T. Mansur & Bruce Sacerdote, 2017. "Geographic Dispersion of Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Fracking Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1313-1334, April.
    12. Kirill Borusyak & Xavier Jaravel & Jann Spiess, 2024. "Revisiting Event-Study Designs: Robust and Efficient Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(6), pages 3253-3285.
    13. Gibbons, Stephen, 2015. "Gone with the wind: Valuing the visual impacts of wind turbines through house prices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 177-196.
    14. Kurt Schmidheiny & Sebastian Siegloch, 2023. "On event studies and distributed‐lags in two‐way fixed effects models: Identification, equivalence, and generalization," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(5), pages 695-713, August.
    15. Alexander G. James & Brock Smith, 2020. "Geographic Dispersion of Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Fracking Revolution: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(6), pages 1905-1913, June.
    16. Costa, Hélia & Veiga, Linda, 2021. "Local labor impact of wind energy investment: An analysis of Portuguese municipalities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    17. Arindrajit Dube & Daniele Girardi & Òscar Jordà & Alan M. Taylor, 2023. "A Local Projections Approach to Difference-in-Differences," NBER Working Papers 31184, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Stephen Jarvis, 2025. "The Economic Costs of NIMBYism: Evidence from Renewable Energy Projects," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(4), pages 983-1022.
    19. James Feyrer & Erin Mansur & Bruce Sacerdote, 2020. "Geographic Dispersion of Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Fracking Revolution: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(6), pages 1914-1920, June.
    20. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    21. Haan, Peter & Simmler, Martin, 2018. "Wind electricity subsidies — A windfall for landowners? Evidence from a feed-in tariff in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 16-32.
    22. Fabian Scheifele & David Popp, 2024. "Not in My Backyard? The Local Impact of Wind and Solar Parks in Brazil," CESifo Working Paper Series 11023, CESifo.
    23. Jason Brown, 2014. "Production of natural gas from shale in local economies: a resource blessing or curse?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Q I, pages 1-29.
    24. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    25. Komarek, Timothy M., 2016. "Labor market dynamics and the unconventional natural gas boom: Evidence from the Marcellus region," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-17.
    26. Weber, Jeremy G., 2012. "The effects of a natural gas boom on employment and income in Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1580-1588.
    27. Krekel, Christian & Rechlitz, Julia & Rode, Johannes & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2020. "Quantifying the Externalities of Renewable Energy Plants Using Wellbeing Data: The Case of Biogas," IZA Discussion Papers 13959, IZA Network @ LISER.
    28. Mario Alloza & Carlos Sanz, 2021. "Jobs Multipliers: Evidence from a Large Fiscal Stimulus in Spain," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(3), pages 751-779, July.
    29. Valerie A. Ramey & Sarah Zubairy, 2018. "Government Spending Multipliers in Good Times and in Bad: Evidence from US Historical Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 850-901.
    30. Alan J. Auerbach & Yuriy Gorodnichenko, 2012. "Fiscal Multipliers in Recession and Expansion," NBER Chapters, in: Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis, pages 63-98, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    31. Hartley, Peter R. & Medlock, Kenneth B. & Temzelides, Ted & Zhang, Xinya, 2015. "Local employment impact from competing energy sources: Shale gas versus wind generation in Texas," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 610-619.
    32. World Bank, 2021. "Inclusive Growth at a Crossroads," World Bank Publications - Reports 36023, The World Bank Group.
    33. Brown, Jason P. & Pender, John & Wiser, Ryan & Lantz, Eric & Hoen, Ben, 2012. "Ex post analysis of economic impacts from wind power development in U.S. counties," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1743-1754.
    34. Brunner, Eric J. & Schwegman, David J., 2022. "Commercial wind energy installations and local economic development: Evidence from U.S. counties," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    35. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2018. "Identification in Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 59-86, Summer.
    36. Alexander W. Bartik & Janet Currie & Michael Greenstone & Christopher R. Knittel, 2019. "The Local Economic and Welfare Consequences of Hydraulic Fracturing," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 105-155, October.
    37. Cl'ement de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultf{oe}uille, 2020. "Difference-in-Differences Estimators of Intertemporal Treatment Effects," Papers 2007.04267, arXiv.org, revised May 2026.
    38. Enrico Moretti, 2014. "Local Economic Development, Agglomeration Economies, and the Big Push: 100 Years of Evidence from the Tennessee Valley Authority," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 275-331.
    39. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    40. James Feyrer & Bruce Sacerdote, 2011. "Did the Stimulus Stimulate? Real Time Estimates of the Effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," NBER Working Papers 16759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    41. Fabian Scheifele & David Popp, 2024. "Not in My Backyard? The Local Impact of Wind and Solar Parks in Brazil," NBER Working Papers 32274, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Gao, Xue & Zhou, Shan & Luo, Tian, 2025. "Navigating wind energy siting in the U.S.: The role of permitting and siting regulations and public engagement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    2. Claire Gavard & Jonas Göbel & Niklas Schoch, 2025. "Local Economic Impacts of Wind Power Deployment in Denmark," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(6), pages 1679-1717, June.
    3. Valentin-Marian Antohi & Costinela Fortea & Monica Laura Zlati & Rohail Hassan, 2025. "Unemployment in EU Member States: Evidence on the Influence of Economic and Demographic Factors," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 2, pages 210-222.
    4. Joxe Mari Barrutiabengoa & Rafael Ortiz Durán, 2025. "España | Impacto del despliegue de energía renovable sobre el empleo en España [Spain | Renewable energy deployment and employment dynamics in Spanish provinces]," Working Papers 25/11, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.
    5. Federico Fabio Frattini & Francesco Vona & Filippo Bontadini & Italo Colantone, 2025. "The Local Job Multipliers of Green Industrialization," Working Papers 2025.13, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    6. repec:osf:osfxxx:hakt5_v2 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Scheifele, Fabian & Popp, David, 2025. "Not in my backyard? The local impact of wind and solar parks in Brazil," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    8. Keuzenkamp, Joep & Mazza, Jacopo & Rijkers, Bob & Stapleton, Katherine, 2026. "Is Place-Based Green Industrial Policy Effective ? Evidence from the Inflation Reduction Act," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11337, The World Bank.
    9. Javed, Asif & Usman, Nimra, 2025. "Skill-biased labour market effects of environmental policy and green energy transition in Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    10. Frattini, Federico Fabio & Vona, Francesco & Bontadini, Filippo & Colantone, Italo, "undated". "The Local Job Multipliers of Green Industrialization," FEEM Working Papers 358792, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    11. Germeshausen, Robert & Heim, Sven & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2025. "Support for renewable energy: The case of wind power," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    12. David Cuberes & Aitor Lacuesta & Carlos Moreno-Pérez & Daniel Oto-Peralías, 2025. "Land concentration and large renewable energy projects," Working Papers 25.03, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    13. Castellini, Marta & Castelli, Chiara & Gusperti, Camilla & Lupi, Veronica & Vergalli, Sergio, 2025. "Balancing climate policies and economic development in the Mediterranean countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Okorie, David Iheke, 2025. "Making hay while the sun shines: Energy security pathway for Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    15. Gökhan Dilek & Joël Bühler, 2026. "Power to the People: The Local Economic Effects of Renewable Energy Communities in the UK," IREA Working Papers 202604, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics.
    16. Lingfan Xu & Ping Jiang, 2025. "Energy Policy Through a Gender Lens: The Impact of Wind Power Feed-In Tariff Policy on Female Employment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-18, May.
    17. Asif Javed & Sadia Mahwish & Shahbaz Ali Khan & Aamir Javed & Agnese Rapposelli, 2026. "Examining the Role of Public Policy in Promoting Green Energy and Employment: A Bibliometric Analysis in a Circular Economy Framework," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S2), pages 637-654, March.

    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. Claudia Serra-Sala & Clàudia Serra-Sala, 2024. "Harnessing the Wind: The Impact of Wind Farm Development on Municipal Finances," CESifo Working Paper Series 11283, CESifo.
    2. Hoffmann, Christin & Byrukuri Gangadhar, Shanmukha Srinivas & Müsgens, Felix, 2025. "Smells like Green Energy: The Impact of Bioenergy Production on Residential Property Values in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    3. Coulombe, Raphaelle G. & Rao, Akhil, 2025. "Fires and local labor markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    5. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2026. "Estimating Causal Effects With Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 356-382, June.
    6. Fabre, Brice & Sangnier, Marc, 2025. "Where and why do politicians send pork? Evidence from central government transfers to French municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    7. Brunner, Eric J. & Hoen, Ben & Rand, Joe & Schwegman, David, 2024. "Commercial wind turbines and residential home values: New evidence from the universe of land-based wind projects in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    8. Artunç, Cihan & Saleh, Mohamed, 2026. "Connected national capital: Corporations in colonial and independent Egypt," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    9. Leek, Lauren Caroline & Bischl, Simeon, 2024. "How Central Bank Independence Shapes Monetary Policy Communication: A Large Language Model Application," SocArXiv yrhka, Center for Open Science.
    10. repec:osf:socarx:yrhka_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Ridwan Ah Sheikh & Sunil Kanwar, 2024. "Revisiting the Impact of TRIPS on IPR-intensive Export Flows: Evidence from Staggered Difference-in-Differences," Working papers 351, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    12. Mensah, Edouard & Filipski, Mateusz, 2026. "Saving for a rainy day: The impact of storms on saving rates," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    13. Hahm, Dong Woo, 2026. "From curriculum to career: Early-career labor market effects of the Common Core," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    14. Brehm, Johannes & Pestel, Nico & Schaffner, Sandra & Schmitz, Laura, 2025. "From Low Emission Zone to academic track: Environmental policy effects on educational achievement in elementary school," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    15. Yan, Wenying & Chen, Yusheng & Wang, Yanmei, 2025. "Efficiency improvement effect of clean energy transformation —A quasi-natural experiment based on China's clean heating policy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    16. Mark Kattenberg & Bas Scheer & Jurre Thiel, 2023. "Causal forests with fixed effects for treatment effect heterogeneity in difference-in-differences," CPB Discussion Paper 452, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    17. Bhorat, Haroon & Köhler, Timothy, 2025. "The labour market effects of cash transfers to the unemployed: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    18. Kim, Yoonjung, 2025. "The effects of universal free lunch provision on student achievement: Evidence from South Korea," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    19. Zhu, Junjie & Guo, Hongfeng, 2025. "Does the development of high-speed rail benefit carbon emissions reduction?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    20. Frattini, Federico Fabio & Vona, Francesco & Bontadini, Filippo & Colantone, Italo, "undated". "The Local Job Multipliers of Green Industrialization," FEEM Working Papers 358792, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    21. Byrski, Dennis & Wang, Lucy Xiaolu, 2025. "Marketing authorization and strategic patenting: Evidence from pharmaceuticals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pubeco:v:239:y:2024:i:c:s0047272724001488. 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/inca/505578 .

    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.