IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_11160.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Greener, the Higher: Labor Demand of Automotive Firms during the Green Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Fackler
  • Oliver Falck
  • Moritz Goldbeck
  • Fabian Hans
  • Annina Hering

Abstract

We investigate differences in labor demand between German automotive firms specializing in green propulsion technology and those with a focus on combustion engines. To this end, we introduce a firm-level labor demand index based on the near-universe of online job postings and firms’ patent portfolios. Workforce adjustments are a crucial dimension of technology-related structural change, and labor demand as a highly reactive decision parameter is an ideal measure to detect employment adjustments. Our index enables us to distinguish labor demand by firms’ greenness in real-time, a notable advantage over survey or administrative data. In a difference-in-differences setup, we exploit the poly-crisis triggered by unexpected escalations of trade conflicts and sustained by consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. We find green firms’ labor demand is significantly and persistently higher than before the outbreak of the poly-crisis, by 34 to 50 percentage points compared to firms with a focus on combustion technology. This gap widens over time and is not driven by unobserved firm heterogeneity. Green firms systematically adjust labor demand towards production and information technology jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Fackler & Oliver Falck & Moritz Goldbeck & Fabian Hans & Annina Hering, 2024. "The Greener, the Higher: Labor Demand of Automotive Firms during the Green Transformation," CESifo Working Paper Series 11160, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11160
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11160.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1989. "Labor Demand and the Structure of Adjustment Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 674-689, September.
    2. Popp, David, 2019. "Environmental Policy and Innovation: A Decade of Research," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 13(3-4), pages 265-337, September.
    3. Bohnsack, René & Pinkse, Jonatan & Kolk, Ans, 2014. "Business models for sustainable technologies: Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 284-300.
    4. Janser, Markus, 2018. "The greening of jobs in Germany : First evidence from a text mining based index and employment register data," IAB-Discussion Paper 201814, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. David Popp, 2019. "Environmental policy and innovation: a decade of research," CESifo Working Paper Series 7544, CESifo.
    6. Thomas Puls & Werner Olle & Heike Proff & Oliver Falck & Nina Czernich & Johannes Koenen & Florian Herrmann & Wolfgang Beinhauer & Stefan Reindl & Alexander Wottge & Roman Zitzelsberger & Ilka Horstme, 2021. "Strukturwandel in der Automobilindustrie – wirkt die Pandemie als Beschleuniger?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 74(05), pages 03-35, May.
    7. David Popp, 2019. "Environmental Policy and Innovation: A Decade of Research," NBER Working Papers 25631, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Skeete, Jean-Paul, 2017. "Examining the role of policy design and policy interaction in EU automotive emissions performance gaps," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 373-381.
    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. Michael Peneder & Spyros Arvanitis & Christian Rammer & Tobias Stucki & Martin Wörter, 2022. "Policy instruments and self-reported impacts of the adoption of energy saving technologies in the DACH region," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 369-404, May.
    2. Grafström, Jonas & Poudineh, Rahmat, 2023. "No evidence of counteracting policy effects on European solar power invention and diffusion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    3. Johan Lilliestam & Anthony Patt & Germán Bersalli, 2022. "On the quality of emission reductions: observed effects of carbon pricing on investments, innovation, and operational shifts. A response to van den Bergh and Savin (2021)," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(3), pages 733-758, November.
    4. David Popp & Jacquelyn Pless & Ivan Haščič & Nick Johnstone, 2020. "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Energy Sector," NBER Chapters, in: The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, pages 175-248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Rik L. Rozendaal & Herman R. J. Vollebergh, 2021. "Policy-Induced Innovation in Clean Technologies: Evidence from the Car Market," CESifo Working Paper Series 9422, CESifo.
    6. Stern, Nicholas & Sivropoulos-Valero, Anna Valero, 2021. "Innovation, growth and the transition to net-zero emissions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114385, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Denisa Szabo & Mihai Dragomir & Mihail Țîțu & Diana Dragomir & Sorin Popescu & Silvia Tofană, 2023. "Sustainable Low-Carbon Production: From Strategy to Reality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Jingbo Cui & Zhenxuan Wang & Haishan Yu, 2022. "Can International Climate Cooperation Induce Knowledge Spillover to Developing Countries? Evidence from CDM," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(4), pages 923-951, August.
    9. Antoine Dechezlepretre & Sam Fankhauser & Matthieu Glachant & Jan Stoever & Simon Touboul, 2020. "Invention and Global Diffusion of Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation," World Bank Publications - Reports 33883, The World Bank Group.
    10. Nicholas Stern & Anna Valero, 2021. "Innovation, growth and the transition to net-zero emissions," CEP Discussion Papers dp1773, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Liu, Hongxun & Gao, Jinfeng & Tian, Peng & Ma, Xiaoming & Meng, Guanfei & Yang, Jingnan & Li, Zhi, 2023. "The impact of environmental regulation on productivity with co-production of goods and bads," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. Filippo Maria D’Arcangelo & Ilai Levin & Alessia Pagani & Mauro Pisu & Åsa Johansson, 2022. "A framework to decarbonise the economy," OECD Economic Policy Papers 31, OECD Publishing.
    13. Wang, Nan & Akimoto, Keigo & Nemet, Gregory F., 2021. "What went wrong? Learning from three decades of carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) pilot and demonstration projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. repec:ecb:ecbdps:202219 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. David Popp & Francesco Vona & Myriam Grégoire-Zawilski & Giovanni Marin, 2024. "The Next Wave of Energy Innovation: Which Technologies? Which Skills?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 45-65.
    16. Gianluca Biggi & Martina Iori & Julia Mazzei & Andrea Mina, 2024. "Green Intelligence: The AI content of green technologies," LEM Papers Series 2024/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    17. Katinka Holtsmark & Katinka Kristine Holtsmark, 2024. "Can Revenue Recycling Kill Green Technology?," CESifo Working Paper Series 11510, CESifo.
    18. Gugler, Klaus & Szücs, Florian & Wiedenhofer, Thomas, 2024. "Environmental Policies and directed technological change," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    19. Hötte, Kerstin & Pichler, Anton & Lafond, François, 2021. "The rise of science in low-carbon energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    20. Lei Li & Xiaoyu Ma & Shaojun Ma & Feng Gao, 2024. "Role of green finance in regional heterogeneous green innovation: Evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    21. Margit Schratzenstaller-Altzinger & Alexander Krenek, 2019. "Tax-based Own Resources to Finance the EU Budget. Potential Revenues, Summary Evaluation from a Sustainability Perspective, and Implementation Aspects," WIFO Working Papers 581, WIFO.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    low carbon technology; firm employment decisions; sustainability; disruptive innovation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_11160. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.