IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp1568.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wind Electricity Subsidies = Windfall Gains for Land Owners? Evidence from Feed-In Tariff in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Haan
  • Martin Simmler

Abstract

In 2013, around 121 billion US-Dollar were spend worldwide to promote the investment into renewable energy sources. The most prominent support scheme employed is a feed-in tariff, which guarantees a fixed price for electricity produced by renewable energies sources, usually for around 15 years after the installation of the plant. We study the incidence of wind turbine subsidies, due to a feed-in tariff in Germany, into land prices to shed light on who benefits from the subsidies. In order to identify the incidence share we exploit quasi-experimental variation in wind strength across 270 non-urban counties combined with an institutional reform and use an Instrumental Variable estimator based on administrative transactionprices. We find that between 15 and 20% of expected wind turbine profits are capitalized into land prices. Using the estimated incidence share of 15%, we find that wind turbine subsidies account for roughly 4% of overall agricultural income of land owners in 2007.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Haan & Martin Simmler, 2016. "Wind Electricity Subsidies = Windfall Gains for Land Owners? Evidence from Feed-In Tariff in Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1568, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1568
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.530367.de/dp1568.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vincent E. Breneman & Richard F. Nehring, 2006. "Urban Sprawl and Farmland Prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(4), pages 915-929.
    2. Besley, Timothy J. & Rosen, Harvey S., 1999. "Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(2), pages 157-178, June.
    3. Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & Owen Zidar, 2016. "Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Markets Approach with Heterogeneous Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2582-2624, September.
    4. Philippe Menanteau & Dominique Finon & Marie-Laure Lamy, 2003. "Prices versus quantities :environmental policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Post-Print halshs-00480457, HAL.
    5. Pavel Ciaian & d’Artis Kancs, 2012. "The Capitalization of Area Payments into Farmland Rents: Micro Evidence from the New EU Member States," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 60(4), pages 517-540, December.
    6. Kevin A. Hassett & Aparna Mathur & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2009. "The Incidence of a U.S. Carbon Tax: A Lifetime and Regional Analysis," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 155-178.
    7. Oliver Hart & Luigi Zingales, 2015. "Liquidity And Inefficient Investment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(5), pages 737-769, October.
    8. Till Requate, 2015. "Green tradable certificates versus feed-in tariffs in the promotion of renewable energy shares," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(2), pages 211-239, April.
    9. Nicola Cetorelli & Philip E. Strahan, 2006. "Finance as a Barrier to Entry: Bank Competition and Industry Structure in Local U.S. Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 437-461, February.
    10. Eichner, Thomas & Runkel, Marco, 2014. "Subsidizing renewable energy under capital mobility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 50-59.
    11. Menanteau, Philippe & Finon, Dominique & Lamy, Marie-Laure, 2003. "Prices versus quantities: choosing policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 799-812, June.
    12. Nick Johnstone & Ivan Haščič & David Popp, 2010. "Renewable Energy Policies and Technological Innovation: Evidence Based on Patent Counts," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 133-155, January.
    13. Parry, Ian W. H., 2004. "Are emissions permits regressive?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 364-387, March.
    14. Boccard, Nicolas, 2009. "Capacity factor of wind power realized values vs. estimates," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2679-2688, July.
    15. Hendricks, Nathan P. & Janzen, Joseph P. & Dhuyvetter, Kevin C., 2012. "Subsidy Incidence and Inertia in Farmland Rental Markets: Estimates from a Dynamic Panel," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1-18.
    16. Barrett E. Kirwan, 2009. "The Incidence of U.S. Agricultural Subsidies on Farmland Rental Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(1), pages 138-164, February.
    17. Metcalf, Gilbert E., 1999. "A Distributional Analysis of Green Tax Reforms," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 4), pages 655-82, December.
    18. James M. Sallee, 2011. "The Surprising Incidence of Tax Credits for the Toyota Prius," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 189-219, May.
    19. Poterba, James M., 1996. "Retail Price Reactions to Changes in State and Local Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 49(2), pages 165-176, June.
    20. Corbett Grainger & Charles Kolstad, 2010. "Who Pays a Price on Carbon?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 359-376, July.
    21. Michael J. Roberts & Barrett Kirwan & Jeffrey Hopkins, 2003. "The Incidence of Government Program Payments on Agricultural Land Rents: The Challenges of Identification," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(3), pages 762-769.
    22. Carbonnier, Clement, 2007. "Who pays sales taxes? Evidence from French VAT reforms, 1987-1999," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1219-1229, June.
    23. Gunnar Breustedt & Hendrik Habermann, 2011. "The Incidence of EU Per‐Hectare Payments on Farmland Rental Rates: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of German Farm‐Level Data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 225-243, February.
    24. Karsten Neuhoff & Stefan Bach & Jochen Diekmann & Martin Beznoska & Tarik El-Laboudy, 2012. "Steigende EEG-Umlage: unerwünschte Verteilungseffekte können vermindert werden," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 79(41), pages 3-12.
    25. Klessmann, Corinna & Held, Anne & Rathmann, Max & Ragwitz, Mario, 2011. "Status and perspectives of renewable energy policy and deployment in the European Union—What is needed to reach the 2020 targets?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7637-7657.
    26. Metcalf, Gilbert E., 1999. "A Distributional Analysis of Green Tax Reforms," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(4), pages 655-682, December.
    27. Haas, Reinhard & Resch, Gustav & Panzer, Christian & Busch, Sebastian & Ragwitz, Mario & Held, Anne, 2011. "Efficiency and effectiveness of promotion systems for electricity generation from renewable energy sources – Lessons from EU countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 2186-2193.
    28. Titman, Sheridan, 1985. "Urban Land Prices under Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 505-514, June.
    29. Poterba, James M., 1996. "Retail Price Reactions to Changes in State and Local Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(2), pages 165-76, June.
    30. Pam Guiling & B. Wade Brorsen & Damona Doye, 2009. "Effect of Urban Proximity on Agricultural Land Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(2), pages 252-264.
    31. Grainger, Corbett A., 2012. "The distributional effects of pollution regulations: Do renters fully pay for cleaner air?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 840-852.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Drupp, Moritz A. & Meya, Jasper N. & Baumgärtner, Stefan & Quaas, Martin F., 2017. "Economic inequality and the value of nature," Economics Working Papers 2017-08, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.

    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. 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.
    2. Dong, Changgui & Wiser, Ryan & Rai, Varun, 2018. "Incentive pass-through for residential solar systems in California," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 154-165.
    3. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    4. Lin, Wensheng & Huang, Jikun, 2021. "Impacts of agricultural incentive policies on land rental prices: New evidence from China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    5. Asatryan, Zareh & Gomtsyan, David, 2020. "The incidence of VAT evasion," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-027, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Pavel Ciaian & Edoardo Baldoni & d'Artis Kancs & Dušan Drabik, 2021. "The Capitalization of Agricultural Subsidies into Land Prices," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 17-38, October.
    7. Bongsuk Sung & Myung-Bae Yeom & Hong-Gi Kim, 2017. "Eco-Efficiency of Government Policy and Exports in the Bioenergy Technology Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Franz W. Wagner & Stefan Weber, 2016. "Wird die Umsatzsteuer überwälzt? [Do Firms Pass on VAT?]," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 68(4), pages 401-421, December.
    9. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2021. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A Meta-Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(1), pages 1-42, January.
    10. repec:zbw:inwedp:652016 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Sharat Ganapati & Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2016. "The Incidence of Carbon Taxes in U.S. Manufacturing: Lessons from Energy Cost Pass-through," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2038R3, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Mar 2018.
    12. Andrej Cupák & Peter Tóth, 2017. "Measuring the Efficiency of VAT reforms: Evidence from Slovakia," Working and Discussion Papers WP 6/2017, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.
    13. Sharat Ganapati & Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2020. "Energy Cost Pass-Through in US Manufacturing: Estimates and Implications for Carbon Taxes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 303-342, April.
    14. Panayiota Lyssiotou & Elena Savva, 2021. "Who pays taxes on basic foodstuffs? Evidence from broadening the VAT base," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(1), pages 212-247, February.
    15. Arkadiusz Bernal, 2018. "The Value Added Tax Incidence – the Case of the Book Market in CEE Countries," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 68(2), pages 144-164, April.
    16. Dora Benedek & Ruud A. Mooij & Michael Keen & Philippe Wingender, 2020. "Varieties of VAT pass through," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(4), pages 890-930, August.
    17. Simmler, Martin & Haan, Peter, 2015. "On the incidence of renewable energy subsidies into land prices - Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112950, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2014. "A General Microsimulation Model for the EU VAT with a specific Application to Germany," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 7(2), pages 40-93.
    19. Marten Graubner, 2018. "Lost in space? The effect of direct payments on land rental prices," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 45(2), pages 143-171.
    20. Polzin, Friedemann & Egli, Florian & Steffen, Bjarne & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "How do policies mobilize private finance for renewable energy?—A systematic review with an investor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1249-1268.
    21. Richard Blundell, 2009. "Assessing the Temporary VAT Cut Policy in the UK," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 31-38, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Incidence; subsidy; renewable energy; wind turbines; land prices;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources

    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:diw:diwwpp:dp1568. 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: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.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.