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Capital Adjustment Costs and Stranded Assets in an Optimal Energy Transition

Author

Listed:
  • Burda, Michael C.

    (Humboldt University Berlin)

  • Goeth, Anna-Maria

    (World Bank)

  • Zessner-Spitzenberg, Leopold

    (TU Wien)

Abstract

In the context of a green energy transition, capital adjustment costs render effective substitution between clean and dirty energy sources finite and endogenous, despite infinite long-run substitutability. Ramsey optimal paths robustly frontload clean investment before exhaustion of a given carbon budget, but also generally imply some capital stranding. Along the path of emissions reduction, new investment is quantitatively more important than reduced output or labor redeployment. An ambitious climate goal in our benchmark calibration implies modest levels of stranded capital at 1.5% of GDP, but this rises to more than 7% if implementation is delayed by a decade.

Suggested Citation

  • Burda, Michael C. & Goeth, Anna-Maria & Zessner-Spitzenberg, Leopold, 2025. "Capital Adjustment Costs and Stranded Assets in an Optimal Energy Transition," IZA Discussion Papers 18356, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18356
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy

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