Research

Publications

• "Local Economic Impacts of Wind Power Deployment in Denmark", with Claire Gavard and Jonas Göbel.
  Environmental and Resource Economics (2025)
  
  Abstract ▼

  An argument sometimes used to support renewable energy is that it may contribute to job creation. On the other hand, these technologies often face local opposition. In the case of Denmark, the country with the longest wind power experience, we examine whether the installation of new turbines had local economic benefits. Using the Danish master data register of wind turbines and detailed data on the municipal budget, personal income and sectoral employment from Statistics Denmark, we build a panel covering 250 municipalities. We use a quasi-experimental set-up and exploit time and regional variations at the municipal level. We find that the deployment of wind power contributed to the increase in personal income for entrepreneurs and reduced dependence on social benefits. As municipalities received payments from wind investors ahead of the construction, the new wind revenues were also followed by increases in local public spending. We find only very minor effects on employment in some sectors, and the aggregate local employment does not change significantly. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the increases in local entrepreneurial income are largely driven by small installations, whilst increases in municipal budget and reductions in the dependence on social benefits are induced by larger installations.

  Published Version

Working Paper

• "Emissions Trading with Supply Adjustment Mechanisms and Market Power", with Tom Brinker and Simon Quemin.
  Working Paper
• "Climate Policy with Industry Concentration: The Role of Technology Adoption".
  Job Market Paper (Draft available upon request)
  Carbon Policy Simulator
• "Climate Finance and Emission Reductions: What Do the Last Twenty Years Tell Us?", with Claire Gavard.
  Revised and resubmitted at Environment and Development Economics
  Working Paper

Work in Progress

• "Escaping the Uncertainty: Prices vs. Quantities with Long-Term Investment", with Diego Cussen.

Master thesis

• "Does Subsidy Simulation Work? Evidence from the German Car Market", Master`s thesis (2020).
  
  Abstract ▼

  Electric mobility is seen as a promising technology on the way to a carbon-neutral economy. Globally, policy makers introduce incentive schemes to enhance the diffusion of electric engine technologies. This creates a need for tools able to inform the policy making process by providing predictions about the market impacts of the proposed policies. This thesis aims at testing the predictive accuracy of structural market simulation methods to predict the impacts of a subsidy for electric vehicles, using the introduction of federal purchase incentives in Germany in 2016 as a case study. For the simulation, I implement a nested logit demand system, where demand is estimated by IV using BLP-style instruments. I use the demand estimates to compute a multi-product Bertrand (Nash) equilibrium of sales volumes and prices for the German car market, and compare the equilibrium outcomes under a subsidy with a non-subsidy scenario. In addition, I conduct an econometric ex-post evaluation of the German EV subsidy reform, and I find that the structural model overpredicts the subsidy impact on electric vehicle sales. Potential reasons include changes in consumer preferences coinciding with the introduction of the subsidy, shifts in firm conduct, consumer expectations about future subsidies, firm reactions through channels other than price adjustments, or an understatement of the subsidy impacts in the ex-post evaluation.

  Replication code