Abstract

In light of Germany´s transition approaches towards a sustainable energy system this paper examines differences of employment structure and wage differentials between renewable energy establishments and their sector peers. To do so, we have developed a novel data set by linking company-level information from the German Renewable Energy Federation with establishment-level data of the IAB Establishment History Panel.

With regard to the large allocation of feed-in tariffs and subsidies for the development of RE sources, there is a broad public interest in the economic impacts of those promotion activities. The quantitative development of the renewable energy supply is monitored on a broad level (for example, see International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 2014). However, there is only little statistical data available about the actors within the RE product markets. Consequently, for the evaluation of quantitative employment effects of RE products and services, there is only macroeconomic data available, which can only provide rough estimates. There is even less evidence about the quality of those jobs, especially in terms of wages. An important question is whether workers within RE product markets also benefit in terms of wages from the promotion of renewable energy sources.

In order to fill this gap with reliable empirical data from Germany, we tackle the following research questions: Is there a difference in wages between RE establishments and others? If yes, what are the determinants for this wage differential and how do they differ between sectors? Do those wage differentials merely reflect differences in establishment characteristics or other external influences, such as the promotion of renewable energy sources?

The Projekt uses econometric methods such as 'Blinder/Oxaca-Decompositions' and 'Fixed Effects Regressions' to pursue the research questions.