Firm-level CO2 emissions and production networks: evidence from administrative data in Chile

This project uses unique Chilean administrative data to shed light on how production networks might play a key role in shaping the macroeconomic impacts of green transition policies. First, using customs and firm-to-firm transaction data that covers the universe of firms in Chile, we build the fossil fuel consumption and the direct CO2 emissions at the firm, sectoral, and aggregate levels. In line with the official national sources, the electricity generation sector is the most important contributor to aggregate CO2 emissions, followed by the manufacturing, transport, and mining sectors. Then, we study the role of input-output linkages in propagating CO2 emissions to the rest of the economy. To do so, we construct the production network and the carbon footprint at the firm level using firm-to-firm transaction data from the Chilean IRS, and we validate our results with the input-output tables approach used in the literature. The results show that the electricity generation sector is central in the network, with potentially important downstream spillover effects, while the mining sector is located in the outer part of the network with rich upstream connections. Also, we show that the copper mining industry is the most exposed one to a carbon tax scheme implemented on all the firms in the economy and also to one that only targets the electricity generation sector.