IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v239y2024ics0047272724001488.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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 search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Cl'ement de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultf{oe}uille, 2020. "Difference-in-Differences Estimators of Intertemporal Treatment Effects," Papers 2007.04267, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    8. Germeshausen, Robert & Heim, Sven & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2021. "Support for renewable energy: The case of wind power," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-074, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Jarvis, Stephen, 2021. "The economic costs of NIMBYism: evidence from renewable energy projects," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113653, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Taylor, Alan M. & Dube, Arindrajit & Girardi, Daniele & Jordà , Òscar, 2023. "A Local Projections Approach to Difference-in-Differences Event Studies," CEPR Discussion Papers 18141, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    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. Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2018. "Identification in Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 59-86, Summer.
    21. 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.
    22. 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.
    23. 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.
    24. 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.
    25. 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.
    26. 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, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    27. 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.
    28. 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.
    29. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier d'Haultfoeuille & Félix Pasquier & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare, 2022. "Difference-in-Differences Estimators for Treatments Continuously Distributed at Every Period," Working Papers hal-03873926, HAL.
    30. Dröes, Martijn I. & Koster, Hans R.A., 2021. "Wind turbines, solar farms, and house prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    31. 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.
    32. Costa, Hélia & Veiga, Linda, 2021. "Local labor impact of wind energy investment: An analysis of Portuguese municipalities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    33. 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.
    34. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    35. 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).
    36. 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.
    37. 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.
    38. 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.
    39. 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.
    40. World Bank, 2021. "Inclusive Growth at a Crossroads," World Bank Publications - Reports 36023, The World Bank Group.
    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)

    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. 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.
    3. repec:hal:pseptp:hal-04930928 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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).
    5. 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.
    6. Leek, Lauren Caroline & Bischl, Simeon, 2024. "How Central Bank Independence Shapes Monetary Policy Communication: A Large Language Model Application," SocArXiv yrhka_v1, Center for Open Science.
    7. repec:hal:ipppap:hal-04930928 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. repec:hal:journl:hal-04930928 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Cl'ement de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultf{oe}uille, 2021. "Two-Way Fixed Effects and Differences-in-Differences with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects: A Survey," Papers 2112.04565, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    12. Berry, Kevin & James, Alexander & Smith, Brock & Watson, Brett, 2022. "Geography, Geology, and Regional Economic Development," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    13. Cheick Camara, 2023. "Gender Budgeting and Health Spending Efficiency in Indian States: A Staggered Difference-in-Differences Analysis," CERDI Working papers hal-04294262, HAL.
    14. Lindgren, Erik & Pettersson-Lidbom, Per & Tyrefors, Björn, 2021. "The Causal Effect of Transport Infrastructure: Evidence from a New Historical Database," Working Paper Series 1407, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    15. Gregory Faletto, 2023. "Fused Extended Two-Way Fixed Effects for Difference-in-Differences With Staggered Adoptions," Papers 2312.05985, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    16. Clarke, Dylan R. & Gold, Daniel E., 2024. "The effects of residential landlord–tenant laws: New evidence from Canadian reforms using census data," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    17. Santiago Garriga & Dario Tortarolo, 2024. "Wage effects of means-tested transfers: Incidence implications of using firms as intermediaries," IFS Working Papers W24/49, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    18. Kamila Cygan-Rehm, 2022. "Lifetime Consequences of Lost Instructional Time in the Classroom: Evidence from Shortened School Years," CESifo Working Paper Series 9892, CESifo.
    19. 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.
    20. Elmallah, Salma & Hoen, Ben & Fujita, K. Sydny & Robson, Dana & Brunner, Eric, 2023. "Shedding light on large-scale solar impacts: An analysis of property values and proximity to photovoltaics across six U.S. states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    21. Rodríguez-Puello, Gabriel & Rickardsson, Jonna, 2024. "Spatial Diffusion of Economic Shocks in the Labor Market: Evidence from a Mining Boom and Bust," OSF Preprints tzmf2, Center for Open Science.
    22. Jean-Baptiste Bonnier, 2024. "A Split-Treatment Design," Working Papers 2024-11, CRESE.
    23. Heeyun Kim, 2024. "A Fad or the New Norm for Student Access Today? Evaluating Enrollment Outcomes of Holistic Admissions in South Korea," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 65(5), pages 1040-1064, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Renewable energy; Employment; Unemployment; NIMBY; Spatial effects;
    All these 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.