Abstract

Whereas there is an increasing number of studies about the economic effects of climate policies in general, it is still an open question to what extent these policies affect workers directly. This paper is the first that tackles this issue. Focusing on the manufacturing sector in Germany, we investigate whether the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) leads to disadvantages in labor market outcomes (employment stability, wage growth, cumulative earnings) at worker level. Firstly, we compare individual outcomes of comparable workers employed at ETS establishments with those at other establishments. Using a novel tasks-based measure developed by Janser (2022) we secondly investigate whether the outcomes differ for workers in potential climate-damaging occupations and for those with potential climate-protecting occupations.