Environment versus Jobs: An Industry-level Analysis of Sweden

Golnaz Amjadi ()
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Golnaz Amjadi: CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics

No 2020:13, CERE Working Papers from CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics

Abstract: The aim of this paper was to investigate whether the environment and employment compete with each other in Swedish manufacturing industry. The effect of a marginal increase in environmental expenditure and environmental investment costs on sector-level demand for labor (employment) was studied using a detailed firm-level panel dataset for the period 2001–2008. The results showed that the sign and magnitude of the net employment effects ultimately depend on the aggregate sector-level output demand elasticity. If the output demand is inelastic, these costs induce small net improvements in employment, while a more elastic output demand suggests negative, but in most sectors relatively small, net effects on demand for labor. Hence, the results did not generally indicate a substantial trade-off between jobs and the environment. The general policy recommendation that can be drawn from this study is that, in the absence of empirically estimated output demand elasticities, a careful attitude regarding national environmental initiatives for sectors exposed to world market competition should be adopted.

Keywords: Environmental management costs; Output demand elasticity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 D22 J23 K32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2020-06-26, Revised 2020-11-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-eur and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:slucer:2020_013

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