Global temperature, R&D expenditure, and growth

Michael Donadelli, Patrick Grüning, Marcus Jüppner () and Renatas Kizys

Energy Economics, 2021, vol. 104, issue C

Abstract: We shed new light on the macroeconomic and financial effects of rising temperatures. In the data, a shock to global temperature dampens research and development (R&D) expenditure growth. This novel empirical evidence is rationalized within a stochastic endogenous growth model. In the model, temperature shocks undermine economic growth via a drop in R&D expenditure. We examine three theoretical channels of the negative R&D expenditure effect of rising temperatures: the patent obsolescence channel, the labor productivity channel, and the capital quality channel. Temperature risk generates welfare costs of 93.14% of lifetime utility in this benchmark model. Moreover, the government can offset these welfare costs by subsidizing investment with 7.04% or R&D expenditure with 3.81% of total public spending, respectively. Alternatively, it can levy a lump-sum tax on households which finances 6.90% of total public spending, reduce corporate taxes by 3.62 percentage points, or increase labor taxes by 2.80 percentage points.

Keywords: Global temperature; Endogenous growth; R&D expenditure; Welfare costs; Labor productivity; Patent obsolescence; Capital quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E20 G12 Q54 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988321004758
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Global temperature, R&D expenditure, and growth (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:104:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321004758

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105608

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().