IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/spmain/hal-03381092.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measures, drivers and effects of green employment: evidence from US local labor markets, 2006-2014

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Vona

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po)

  • Giovanni Marin

    (Università degli Studi di Urbino 'Carlo Bo')

  • Davide Consoli

    (INGENIO - Instituto de Gestión de la Innovación y del Conocimiento = Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Management - CSIC - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas [España] = Spanish National Research Council [Spain] - UPV - Universitat Politècnica de València = Universitad Politecnica de Valencia = Polytechnic University of Valencia)

Abstract

This paper explores the nature and the key empirical regularities of green employment in US local labor markets in 2006–2014. The main methodological novelty consists of a new measure of green employment based on the task content of occupations. Descriptive analysis reveals that green employment is pro-cyclical, highly skilled, commands a 4% wage premium and is geographically concentrated. Green employment dynamics positively correlates with local green subsidies within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, local green knowledge, and resilience to the great recession. Finally, we find that one additional green job is associated with 4.2 (2.2 in the crisis period) new local jobs in non-tradable non-green activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Vona & Giovanni Marin & Davide Consoli, 2019. "Measures, drivers and effects of green employment: evidence from US local labor markets, 2006-2014," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03381092, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03381092
    DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lby038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Consoli, Davide & Marin, Giovanni & Marzucchi, Alberto & Vona, Francesco, 2016. "Do green jobs differ from non-green jobs in terms of skills and human capital?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1046-1060.
    2. Francesco Vona & Giovanni Marin & Davide Consoli & David Popp, 2018. "Environmental Regulation and Green Skills: An Empirical Exploration," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 713-753.
    3. Nir Jaimovich & Henry E. Siu, 2020. "Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 129-147, March.
    4. Paul Beaudry & David A. Green & Benjamin M. Sand, 2016. "The Great Reversal in the Demand for Skill and Cognitive Tasks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 199-247.
    5. Carrión-Flores, Carmen E. & Innes, Robert, 2010. "Environmental innovation and environmental performance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 27-42, January.
    6. E. Mark Curtis, 2014. "Who Loses Under Power Plant Cap-and-Trade Programs?," NBER Working Papers 20808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Francesco Vona & Giovanni Marin & Davide Consoli & David Popp, 2018. "Environmental Regulation and Green Skills: An Empirical Exploration," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 713-753.
    8. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    9. W. Reed Walker, 2011. "Environmental Regulation and Labor Reallocation: Evidence from the Clean Air Act," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 442-447, May.
    10. Morgenstern, Richard D. & Pizer, William A. & Shih, Jhih-Shyang, 2002. "Jobs Versus the Environment: An Industry-Level Perspective," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 412-436, May.
    11. J. Bradford Jensen & Lori G. Kletzer, 2005. "Tradable Services: Understanding the Scope and Impact of Services Outsourcing," Working Paper Series WP05-9, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    12. Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2018. "Why Is Pollution from US Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Environmental Regulation, Productivity, and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3814-3854, December.
    13. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    14. Daron Acemoglu & David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson & Brendan Price, 2016. "Import Competition and the Great US Employment Sag of the 2000s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 141-198.
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3qoljitavv93bptuhfaq9drocb is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Cherniwchan, Jevan, 2017. "Trade liberalization and the environment: Evidence from NAFTA and U.S. manufacturing," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 130-149.
    17. Marchand, Joseph, 2012. "Local labor market impacts of energy boom-bust-boom in Western Canada," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 165-174.
    18. Antoni, Manfred & Janser, Markus & Lehmer, Florian, 2015. "The hidden winners of renewable energy promotion: Insights into sector-specific wage differentials," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 595-613.
    19. Berman, Eli & Bui, Linda T. M., 2001. "Environmental regulation and labor demand: evidence from the South Coast Air Basin," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 265-295, February.
    20. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2013. "The Geography of Trade and Technology Shocks in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 220-225, May.
    21. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    22. Glenn Sheriff & Ann E. Ferris & Ronald J. Shadbegian, 2015. "How Did Air Quality Standards Affect Employment at U.S. Power Plants? The Importance of Stringency, Geography, and Timing," NCEE Working Paper Series 201501, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised May 2015.
    23. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    24. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Lindley, Joanne K., 2017. "Environmental Jobs and Growth in the United States," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 232-244.
    25. Arik Levinson, 2015. "A Direct Estimate of the Technique Effect: Changes in the Pollution Intensity of US Manufacturing, 1990-2008," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 43-56.
    26. Alan J. Auerbach & Yuriy Gorodnichenko, 2012. "Measuring the Output Responses to Fiscal Policy," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 1-27, May.
    27. Jeffrey Lin, 2011. "Technological Adaptation, Cities, and New Work," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 554-574, May.
    28. Rebecca M. Henderson & Richard G. Newell, 2011. "Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hend09-1.
    29. Shapiro, Joseph S. & Walker, Reed, 2015. "Why is Pollution from U.S. Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Trade, Regulation, Productivity, and Preferences," IZA Discussion Papers 8789, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    30. Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2018. "Why Is Pollution from US Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Environmental Regulation, Productivity, and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3814-3854, December.
    31. Enrico Moretti, 2010. "Local Multipliers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 373-377, May.
    32. Enrico Moretti & Per Thulin, 2013. "Local multipliers and human capital in the United States and Sweden," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 339-362, February.
    33. Henderson, Rebecca M. & Newell, Richard G. (ed.), 2011. "Accelerating Energy Innovation," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226326832.
    34. David H. Autor & David Dorn, 2013. "The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1553-1597, August.
    35. Kahn, Matthew E. & Mansur, Erin T., 2013. "Do local energy prices and regulation affect the geographic concentration of employment?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 105-114.
    36. Becker Randy A & Shadbegian Ronald J, 2009. "Environmental Products Manufacturing: A Look inside the Green Industry," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, March.
    37. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    38. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    39. W. Reed Walker, 2013. "The Transitional Costs of Sectoral Reallocation: Evidence From the Clean Air Act and the Workforce," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(4), pages 1787-1835.
    40. 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.
    41. Rebecca M. Henderson & Richard G. Newell, 2011. "Introduction and Summary to "Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors"," NBER Chapters, in: Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors, pages 1-23, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    42. Cole Matthew A & Elliott Rob J, 2007. "Do Environmental Regulations Cost Jobs? An Industry-Level Analysis of the UK," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, June.
    43. 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.
    44. Paul Krugman, 1992. "Geography and Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262610868, April.
    45. Deschenes, Olivier, 2013. "Green Jobs," IZA Policy Papers 62, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    46. Michael Greenstone, 2002. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1175-1219, December.
    47. Sawhney, Aparna & Kahn, Matthew E., 2012. "Understanding cross-national trends in high-tech renewable power equipment exports to the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 308-318.
    48. Atif Mian & Amir Sufi, 2014. "What Explains the 2007–2009 Drop in Employment?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2197-2223, November.
    49. Peter K. Schott, 2008. "The relative sophistication of Chinese exports [‘Manufacturing Earnings and Compensation in China’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 23(53), pages 6-49.
    50. Mundaca, Luis & Luth Richter, Jessika, 2015. "Assessing ‘green energy economy’ stimulus packages: Evidence from the U.S. programs targeting renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1174-1186.
    51. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra Todd, 1998. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(2), pages 261-294.
    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. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2lpvf5mlr48dkah5qda4hh4e9g is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2lpvf5mlr48dkah5qda4hh4e9g is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3qoljitavv93bptuhfaq9drocb is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3qoljitavv93bptuhfaq9drocb is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Marin, Giovanni & Vona, Francesco, 2019. "Climate policies and skill-biased employment dynamics: Evidence from EU countries," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1fkb59dcsg9alqqq6qv18jj5us is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Francesco Vona & Giovanni Marin & Davide Consoli & David Popp, 2018. "Environmental Regulation and Green Skills: An Empirical Exploration," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 713-753.
    8. Marin, Giovanni & Vona, Francesco, 2021. "The impact of energy prices on socioeconomic and environmental performance: Evidence from French manufacturing establishments, 1997–2015," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5ahh4t5kfl8nprei89ignlk5nl is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1jrfjrj6fp8t6q12fv5lra520c is not listed on IDEAS
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2vteelu0n785l82j764n6ul273 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1jrfjrj6fp8t6q12fv5lra520c is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5ahh4t5kfl8nprei89ignlk5nl is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Filippo Bontadini & Francesco Vona, 2023. "Anatomy of Green Specialisation: Evidence from EU Production Data, 1995–2015," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(3), pages 707-740, August.
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2vteelu0n785l82j764n6ul273 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Consoli, Davide & Marin, Giovanni & Marzucchi, Alberto & Vona, Francesco, 2016. "Do green jobs differ from non-green jobs in terms of skills and human capital?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1046-1060.
    17. 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].
    18. Federico Fabio Frattini & Francesco Vona & Filippo Bontadini, 2024. "Does Green Re-industrialization Pay off? Impacts on Employment, Wages and Productivity," Working Papers 2024.23, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6d7es28iae9pjoil7092hs41h3 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6d7es28iae9pjoil7092hs41h3 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Francesco Vona, 2019. "Job losses and political acceptability of climate policies: why the ‘job-killing’ argument is so persistent and how to overturn it," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 524-532, April.
    22. Saussay, Aurélien & Sato, Misato & Vona, Francesco & O’Kane, Layla, 2022. "Who’s fit for the low-carbon transition? Emerging skills and wage gaps in job and data," FEEM Working Papers 329079, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    23. Hille, Erik & Möbius, Patrick, 2019. "Do energy prices affect employment? Decomposed international evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-21.
    24. Jiyu Zhao & Ning Zhang, 2023. "Environmental regulation and labor market: a bibliometric analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6095-6116, July.
    25. Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Managing the distributional effects of climate policies: A narrow path to a just transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    26. Luo, Ximing & Dong, Cong & Dong, Xiucheng, 2024. "How economic transformation influence the employment of resource-based cities: Evidence from Shanxi Province, China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    27. 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.
    28. Agarwal, Sumit & Deng, Yongheng & Li, Teng, 2019. "Environmental regulation as a double-edged sword for housing markets: Evidence from the NOx Budget Trading Program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 286-309.
    29. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6m5kss847r91no96hiublu6anu is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Liu, Mengdi & Tan, Ruipeng & Zhang, Bing, 2021. "The costs of “blue sky”: Environmental regulation, technology upgrading, and labor demand in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    31. Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Skills and human capital for the low-carbon transition in developing and emerging economies," FEEM Working Papers 338778, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    32. Mengdi Liu & Bing Zhang & Qiang Geng, 2018. "Corporate pollution control strategies and labor demand: evidence from China’s manufacturing sector," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 298-326, June.
    33. Francesco Vona, 2018. "Job losses and the political acceptability of climate policies : an amplified collective action problem," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03458275, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Green employment; Local labor markets; Task-based approach; Local multipliers; Green american recovery and reinvestment act; Environmental policies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • 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:hal:spmain:hal-03381092. 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: Contact - Sciences Po Departement of Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.