Conference Agenda

Many governments have set ambitious climate goals that require a shift away from fossil fuel-intensive industries toward climate-neutral jobs. A central open question is how wage opportunities in expanding green sectors compare to those in other parts of the labor market. We use rich Norwegian administrative register data to estimate green wage premiums in the presence of non-random sorting of workers across firms. On average, green firms pay statistically significant and economically meaningful wage premiums, consistent with a pattern of rent-sharing in high-revenue, highly innovative green firms. The premium is larger for non-college workers and those in low-skilled occupations. However, the average estimated wage premium for high-carbon firms is roughly twice as large as the green wage premium. This finding suggests that while the expansion of high-wage green firms may help mitigate the earnings losses associated with decarbonization, it is unlikely to fully offset them.

We analyze the relative roles in diffusion of knowledge that are played by sellers and buyers of hydraulic fracturing jobs. We provide evidence that sellers -- oilfield service companies -- actively disseminated knowledge in the form of both academic publications and patents. By contrast, buyers -- oil and gas developers -- contributed far less to sharing knowledge about hydraulic fracturing. While historically concentrated, the oilfield service sector experienced substantial entry following this dissemination of knowledge, with the result that initial leaders lost their advantage. These results have important implications for both sellers and buyers of technical services that are evolving and improving.

The green sector is often viewed as a source of new jobs for frontline fossil fuel (FFF) workers, yet concerns persist about uncompetitive salaries. This view focuses narrowly on immediate horizontal transitions into similar green jobs, overlooking the sector’s potential to enable long-term career mobility. As an emerging industry, the green sector may offer greater opportunities for advancement into management and engineering roles than mature fossil fuel sectors. Wage comparisons, therefore, should account for differences in upward mobility. Using data on 190,648 FFF workers in the U.S., we analyze career trajectories after leaving their first fossil fuel job. Over their career, FFF workers who, at any point, transition into the green sector (green switchers) earn 4% more than those who remain in fossil fuel jobs. This is partly driven by higher upward mobility in the green sector. Green switchers are twice as likely to hold managerial jobs and 2.5 times as likely to hold science and engineering (SE) jobs compared to peers who remain in the fossil fuel sector. Within these occupational categories, green sector workers earn 10% and 30% more, respectively, than their fossil fuel counterparts. To secure these roles, workers adopt distinct reskilling strategies: skill diversification raises the odds of managerial advancement, while skill deepening into engineering-relevant skills increases the likelihood of entering SE occupations. These findings inform reskilling policies that promote both upward mobility and horizontal flexibility for FFF workers.

Rising extreme temperatures and increasing energy costs pose growing public health risks by constraining households’ ability to maintain safe indoor environments. This study examines whether residential solar photovoltaics (PV) can mitigate these risks by reducing households’ dependence on grid electricity. Using prefecture-by-month mortality and morbidity data from Japan for 2009–2014, a period marked by a sharp increase in electricity prices following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, we find that residential solar PV adoption significantly reduces temperature-related mortality and morbidity, particularly among individuals aged 65 and older. These findings highlight the role of renewable energy in strengthening climate resilience and underscore the importance of policies that expand access to solar PV to protect vulnerable populations.