Promoting green product consumption is one important element in building a sustainable society. Yet green products are usually more costly. In times of high inflation, not only budget constraints but also the fear that prices will continue to rise might dampen green product consumption and, hence, limit the effectiveness of exerted efforts to promote sustainable behaviors. To test this suggestion, we conducted a Germany-wide survey with almost 1,200 respondents, followed by a framed field experiment (N=500) to confirm causality. In the survey, respondents’ stated “green” purchasing behavior is, as to be expected, positively correlated with concerns about climate change. It is also negatively correlated with concerns about future inflation and energy costs, but after controlling for observable characteristics such as income and educational level only the correlation with concerns about future prices remains significant. This result is driven by individuals with below-median environmental attitude. In the framed field experiment, we use the priming method to manipulate the saliency of inflation concerns. Whereas sizably relaxing the budget constraint (i.e., by 50 percent) has no impact on the share of organic products in participants’ baskets, the priming significantly decreases the share of organic products for individuals with below-median environmental attitude, similar to the survey data.

We ask if bank supervisors’ efforts to combat climate change affect banks’ lending and their borrowers’ transition to the carbon-neutral economy. Combining information from the French supervisory agency’s climate pilot exercise with borrowers’ emission data, we first show that banks that participate in the exercise increase lending to high-carbon emitters but simultaneously charge higher interest rates. Second, participating banks collect new information about climate risks, and boost lending for green purposes. Third, receiving credit from a participating bank facilitates borrowers’ efforts to improve environmental performance. Our findings establish a hitherto undocumented link between banking supervision and the transition to net-zero.

Kann die Bankenaufsicht den Übergang zu einer kohlenstoffneutralen Wirtschaft unterstützen, indem sie die Kreditvergabe der Banken an Unternehmen beeinflusst? Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Kreditvergabe der Banken vor und nach dem weltweit ersten Klimastresstest in Frankreich und die Reaktion der kreditnehmenden Unternehmen. Die dem Stresstest unterworfenen Banken geben kohlenstoffintensiven Unternehmen mehr Kredite. Zugleich verlangen sie ihnen aber höhere Zinssätze ab. Die kohlenstoffintensiven Kreditnehmer, deren Banken sich dem Klimastresstest unterzogen haben, verpflichten sich eher zu ehrgeizigen Emissionszielen und integrieren eher Umweltaspekte in die Bewertung von Investitionsprojekten. Jedoch reduzieren sie weder direkt ihre Kohlenstoffemissionen noch beenden sie Beziehungen zu klimaschädlichen Lieferanten. Die Studie belegt somit einen kausalen Zusammenhang zwischen Klimastresstests der Banken und der Verringerung des Transitionsrisikos der Kreditnehmer.

We investigate whether a firm’s exposure to climate change, as proxied by disclosures during quarterly earnings conference calls, provides forward-looking information to investors regarding the long-term association of stock prices with current earnings and the book values of equity. Following a key regulatory mandate around the formation of the cap-and-trade program to reduce emissions related to climate change, firms’ climate change exposure decreases the association between current earnings and stock prices while increasing the relevance of book values of equity (i.e., historical earnings). However, these relationships flip when the sentiment around climate change exposure is negative, suggesting that the risks related to climate change exposure provide forward-looking information to investors when they evaluate the ability of current earnings to predict firm values. Such a relationship is stronger for new economy firms and is sensitive to conservative accounting. We also observe that the inclusion of climate change disclosure to our models improves the joint ability of earnings and book values to predict stock prices.

Es entwickelt sich ein neues Ungleichgewicht auf dem Lausitzer Arbeitsmarkt und es werden nicht Arbeitsplätze, sondern Arbeitskräfte fehlen. Die Schwierigkeiten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt betreffen nicht nur die Lausitz, sondern ganz Brandenburg und sie haben bereits eine ganze Reihe von Reaktionen hervorgerufen. Für inländische wie auch für ausländische Arbeitnehmer und Arbeitnehmerinnen sind gute Schulen, ein schneller Termin beim Arzt, eine gute Anbindung an den ÖPNV, ein leistungsstarkes Internet im öffentlichen Raum und andere Leistungen der öffentlichen Hand bedeutsame Aspekte der öffentlichen Fürsorge. Angesichts der Notwendigkeit, knappe Mittel möglichst effizient einzusetzen, und weil die vorhandenen Mittel begrenzt sind, empfiehlt die Begleitforschung Mittel für Projekte der öffentlichen Fürsorge dort komplementär einzusetzen, wo die Ansiedlung neuer Unternehmen, Behörden und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen zu Mehrbedarfen bei der Versorgung führen können.

Mehr als drei Jahre nach Verabschiedung des Strukturstärkungsgesetzes Kohleregionen gewinnt der Strukturwandel in der brandenburgischen Lausitz deutlich an Fahrt. Ziel des vorliegenden Policy Briefs ist es, die Situation auf dem regionalen Arbeitsmarkt zu analysieren, mögliche Arbeitsmarktreserven und deren Umfang zu diskutieren und Handlungsempfehlungen zu skizzieren. Ein wesentliches Resultat der Untersuchung ist, dass die aktuellen Ansiedlungserfolge und Arbeitsplatzankündigungen in Brandenburg nur dann nachhaltig sein werden, wenn es gelingt, genügend Menschen zu finden, die diese Arbeitsplätze auch besetzen.

Climate change and inequality are critical and interrelated defining issues for this century. Despite growing empirical evidence on the economic incidence of climate policies and impacts, mainstream model-based assessments are often silent on the interplay between climate change and economic inequality. For example, all the major model comparisons reviewed in IPCC neglect within-country inequalities. Here we fill this gap by presenting a model ensemble of eight large-scale Integrated Assessment Models belonging to different model paradigms and featuring economic heterogeneity. We study the distributional implications of Paris-aligned climate target of 1.5 degree and include different carbon revenue redistribution schemes. Moreover, we account for the economic inequalities resulting from residual and avoided climate impacts. We find that price-based climate policies without compensatory measures increase economic inequality in most countries and across models. However, revenue redistribution through equal per-capita transfers can offset this effect, leading to on average decrease in the Gini index by almost two points. When climate benefits are included, inequality is further reduced, but only in the long term. Around mid-century, the combination of dried-up carbon revenues and yet limited climate benefits leads to higher inequality under the Paris target than in the Reference scenario, indicating the need for further policy measures in the medium term.

While access to high-quality microdata is essential for economic research and policy evaluation, effective access to such data remains limited in Europe. It varies from country to country, with uneven information on access procedures. This is a major obstacle to social science research, including research on European competitiveness and the effects of climate change, inequality, globalization, and digitalization. The objective of this paper, which is based on a brainstorming exercise coordinated by CEPR and CompNet, is to assess the status quo and discuss a series of proposals for improving access to Microdata for economic research. We underline the need for developing the relevant tools for extended access to and use of European business statistics microdata. Building such tools entails both establishing the requested microdata and creating a body facilitating cross-country access to the established databases with harmonized content.

In accordance with its statutes, the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) pursues an intensive bilateral knowledge transfer on the basis of excellent scientific research with its partners in the non-academic community. In so doing, the IWH contributes to better informed decision making on a societal level. The overarching goal is to foster mutually beneficial exchanges that involve the provision of evidence-based knowledge to society (transfer from the academic to the non-academic community) and the integration of questions of public interest into its research agenda (transfer from the non-academic to the academic community).

Die EU hat mit dem „Fit for 55“-Paket zwei große klimapolitische Ziele festgelegt: die Senkung der Treibhausgasemissionen um 55% bis zum Jahr 2030 und Treibhausgasneutralität ab dem Jahr 2050. Im Rahmen des EU-Horizon-2020-Projekts ENTRANCES werden die gesellschaftlichen Effekte der Dekarbonisierung und besonders des Kohleausstiegs in verschiedenen europäischen Regionen interdisziplinär analysiert und darauf basierend Handlungsempfehlungen für die Politik abgeleitet. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt erste analytische Ergebnisse vor.