Measuring the Spectrum of Occupational Emissions

Nida Cakir Melek and Elior Cohen

No RWP 25-05, Research Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Abstract: Understanding how occupations differ in their exposure to emissions-intensive activities is fundamental for analyzing labor market risks amid changes in the energy mix. We develop new, data-driven measures of occupational emissions intensity that capture heterogeneity across and within industries. Our baseline Occupational Emissions Score (OES), along with wage- and concentration-adjusted variations (WOES and COES), highlights substantial differences in emissions exposure across the U.S. workforce. Applying these measures, we document several new facts: emissions are highly concentrated in a small set of occupations; emissions intensity has declined over time; and even within industries, workers' exposure varies significantly by occupation. Higher-emission occupations are disproportionately held by older, male, native-born, and less-educated workers, and are concentrated in particular regions. While higher-emission occupations tend to experience lower employment growth, they show higher hourly wages and vacancy growth. An event study of coal mine closures further shows that high-emission occupations are more exposed to structural shocks. Together, our measures provide a comprehensive, granular framework for understanding occupational risk and adjustment during major economic shifts.

Keywords: occupations; Emissions; labor market dynamics; Coal; energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J24 J62 Q52 Q54 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52
Date: 2025-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-lma and nep-tid
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.kansascityfed.org/research/research-wo ... upational-emissions/ Full text (text/html)

Related works:
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:fip:fedkrw:101703

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

DOI: 10.18651/RWP2025-05

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Research Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Zach Kastens ().