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Environmental Policy, Full-Employment Models, and Employment: A Critical Analysis

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  • Hafstead, Marc

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Williams III, Roberton C.

    (Resources for the Future)

  • Chen, Yunguang

    (Resources for the Future)

Abstract

This paper assesses the use of full-employment computable-general equilibrium (CGE) models to predict the labor-market effects of environmental policy. Specifically, it compares the predictions of a standard full-employment CGE model with those of a new search-CGE model with labor-search frictions and resulting unemployment (but that is otherwise identical to the full-employment model). The search-CGE captures key labor market details, including a distinction between the extensive margin of labor demand (the number of employees) and the intensive margin (the number of hours each employee works). We find that some key results are robust across the two models, such as the reallocation of labor across sectors in response to a carbon tax and the overall change in total labor demand. However, the full-employment model seriously overestimates the economy-wide net change in the number of jobs (by a factor of more than 2.5 for a carbon tax with revenues returned lump-sum to households, and by a factor of almost 3.5 when carbon tax revenues are used to reduce payroll taxes).

Suggested Citation

  • Hafstead, Marc & Williams III, Roberton C. & Chen, Yunguang, 2018. "Environmental Policy, Full-Employment Models, and Employment: A Critical Analysis," RFF Working Paper Series 18-03, Resources for the Future.
    • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-18-03
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Aubert, Diane & Chiroleu-Assouline, Mireille, 2019. "Environmental tax reform and income distribution with imperfect heterogeneous labour markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 60-82.
    2. Mortensen, Dale & Pissarides, Christopher, 2011. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 1-19.
    3. Lawrence H. Goulder & Marc A. C. Hafstead & Roberton C. Williams III, 2016. "General Equilibrium Impacts of a Federal Clean Energy Standard," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 186-218, May.
    4. Amaral, Pedro S. & Tasci, Murat, 2016. "The cyclical behavior of equilibrium unemployment and vacancies across OECD countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 184-201.
    5. Robert Shimer, 2010. "Labor Markets and Business Cycles," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9217.
    6. Merz, Monika, 1995. "Search in the labor market and the real business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 269-300, November.
    7. Silva, José Ignacio & Toledo, Manuel, 2009. "Labor Turnover Costs And The Cyclical Behavior Of Vacancies And Unemployment," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(S1), pages 76-96, May.
    8. Pissarides, Christopher A, 1985. "Short-run Equilibrium Dynamics of Unemployment Vacancies, and Real Wages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 676-690, September.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Xavier Pautrel, 2018. "Environmental Policy and Health in the Presence of Labor Market Imperfections," TEPP Working Paper 2018-09, TEPP.
    2. Sager, Lutz, 2023. "The global consumer incidence of carbon pricing: Evidence from trade," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    3. Noe Reidt, 2021. "Climate Policies and Labor Markets in Developing Countries," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 21/351, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    4. Marc A. C. Hafstead & Roberton C. Williams III, 2020. "Jobs and Environmental Regulation," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 192-240.
    5. Jared C. Carbone & Linda T.M. Bui & Don Fullerton & Sergey Paltsev & Ian Sue Wing, 2022. "When and How to Use Economy-Wide Models for Environmental Policy Analysis," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 447-465, October.
    6. 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.
    7. Antosiewicz, Marek & Fuentes, J. Rodrigo & Lewandowski, Piotr & Witajewski-Baltvilks, Jan, 2022. "Distributional effects of emission pricing in a carbon-intensive economy: The case of Poland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Heutel, Garth & Zhang, Xin, 2021. "Efficiency wages, unemployment, and environmental policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    9. Kenneth Castellanos & Garth Heutel, 2024. "Unemployment, Labor Mobility, and Climate Policy," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 1-40.
    10. Shu Kedong & Lu Yueyu & Yu Ziyan & Kuai Peng & Zhang Shu’an, 2021. "Influences of environmental regulations on skill premium: mediating effect of industrial structure optimization," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 245-273, April.
    11. Lynn Riggs & Livvy Mitchell, 2021. "Predicted Distributional Impacts of Climate Change Policy on Employment," Working Papers 21_07, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    12. Tsigas, Marinos & Bernard, Jennifer, 2020. "Costly labor adjustments to trade shocks in CGE analysis," Conference papers 333159, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    13. Gibson, John & Heutel, Garth, 2023. "Pollution and labor market search externalities over the business cycle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    14. Lynn Riggs & Livvy Mitchell, 2021. "Methodology for Modelling Distributional Impacts of Emissions Budgets on Employment in New Zealand," Working Papers 21_14, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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