Emerging skills and wage gaps in the low-carbon transition
As governments worldwide increase their commitments to tackle climate change, low-carbon jobs are expected to grow rapidly. We provide evidence on the characteristics of low-carbon jobs in the US using comprehensive online job posting data between 2010-2019. By accurately identifying low-carbon jobs and comparing them to similar jobs within the same occupation, we show that: i) low-carbon vacancies exhibit higher skill complexity, especially for technical and managerial ones; ii) skill requirements are similar between high-and low-carbon jobs; iii) green reskilling patterns are highly occupation-specific. For most occupations, we observe a wage premium for low-carbon jobs that eroded over time and remained significantly smaller than the high-carbon wage premium. Our analysis makes the case for investments in reskilling as key ingredient of green recovery packages, but also highlight the need to enhance wage incentives in low-carbon jobs.
Date: 12 February 2024, 16:05 (Monday, 5th week, Hilary 2024)
Venue: Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre or https://zoom.us/j/97534799321?pwd=V2pOWGQ2N3l3WWg3eXFSK25hc0laQT09
Speaker: Misato Sato (LSE)
Organising department: Department of Economics
Part of: Environment and Resource Economics Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Shreyasi Banerjee, Edward Clark