Essays on the labour market impacts of the green transition

Kuai, Wenjing (2021). Essays on the labour market impacts of the green transition. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is consist of four empirical studies that explore the labour market impact of green economy transition, with special attention to the important role of green jobs in a greening economy. Following a brief introduction in Chapter one, Chapter two provides the overall trend of green jobs in the Dutch labour market for the period 2000 to 2018. Based on a task approach, we show that the share of green jobs accounts for about 16\% of the total employment in the Dutch labour market, and this share has increased steadily during 2000 to 2011, and remained relatively stable from 2013 to 2018. In Chapter three, we investigate the employment effect of environmental taxes at sector level for the period 2000 to 2016. Our empirical results show that there is no statistically significant evidence of environmental taxes destroy total jobs, but we show that environmental taxes increase number of green jobs, and hence the share of green jobs at sector level. Similarly, we examine the employment effect of eco-innovation at firm level for the year 2006 to 2010 in Chapter four. We found that eco-innovation has no impact on the overall employment, however, compared to non-eco-innovators there is an increase in the number of green jobs, and hence increase in the share of green jobs. In Chapter five, we explore the characteristics and distribution of green jobs in the Dutch labour market using detailed individual data. Specially, we provide a gendered perspective into an analysis of occupation segregation and wage differential in the green employment. Policy implications have been discussed in each chapter, and last chapter concludes.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):