The role of innovation and agglomeration for employment growth in the environmental sector

Arbeitspapier

The environmental sector is supposed to yield a dual benefit: its goods and services are intended to help to tackle environmental challenges and its establishments should create new jobs. However, it is still unclear in empirical terms whether that really is the case. This paper investigates whether employment growth in 'green' establishments with 'green' products and services is higher compared to other establishments. Furthermore, the main factors determining labor demand in this field are analyzed. We use linked employment and regional data for Germany. The descriptive results show that the environmental sector is characterized by disproportionately high employment growth. The application of both a generalized linear mixed model and an instrumental variables regression reveals that especially innovation and industry agglomeration foster employment growth in establishments in the environmental sector. Establishments without green products and services show a smaller increase in employment, even if they are also innovative.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IAB-Discussion Paper ; No. 16/2015

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Labor Demand ; Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects ; Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
• Subject: employment growth ; environmental goods and services sector ; green jobs ; labor demand ; innovation ; eco-innovation ; industrial agglomeration

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Horbach, Jens ; Janser, Markus
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB)
• (where): Nürnberg
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/119445
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET