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Environmental Policy and Heterogeneous Labor Market Effects: Evidence from Europe

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  • Rutzer, Christian

    (University of Basel)

  • Niggli, Matthias

    (University of Basel)

Abstract

In this paper, we use a data-driven approach to predict the "green potential" of ISCO occupations based on their corresponding skills. With this information, we can investigate the relationship between environmental regulations and occupation-level employment in the manufacturing sector of 19 European countries for the period 1992-2010. Our empirical results highlight heterogeneous occupational employment changes in response to an increase in environmental policy stringency. More specically, we nd a decrease in labor demand for occupations with relatively low green potential and an increase for occupations with relatively high green potential. Thus, at least in the short term, greening the economy may create winners and losers across occupations and countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Rutzer, Christian & Niggli, Matthias, 2020. "Environmental Policy and Heterogeneous Labor Market Effects: Evidence from Europe," Working papers 2020/09, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    • Handle: RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2020/09
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lobsiger, Michael & Rutzer, Christian, 2021. "Jobs with green potential in Switzerland: Demand and possible skills shortages," Working papers 2021/01, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    2. Michael Lobsiger & Christian Rutzer, 2021. "The green potential of occupations in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 157(1), pages 1-21, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental regulation; green transition; labor market; supervised learning;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects

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