CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Powell, Natasa Janka |
|---|---|
| Title | Employment Effects of the Energy Transition: Renewable Energy Sources in Europe |
| Summary | The energy transition is a necessary response to climate change and its environmental consequences. In this thesis, I investigate the labour market implications of the energy transition; specifically, I examine how the deployment of renewable energy sources – measured as installed capacity for electricity generation – affects local employment in renewables in the member states of the European Union between 2017 and 2023, including both direct and indirect employment in renewable sources. Although renewables are job creators, an arising concern in switching to renewable energy is that most of the employment increase may not be in the country that installs the renewables. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to uncover whether such an increase shows up on the country level, using a panel data approach that analyses countries over time, with country and time fixed effects and additional control variables. I compile a new dataset and examine total renewables, along with specific sources such as solar, wind and hydropower. I find that approximately two jobs are created for an additional MW of renewable capacity installed. Thus, my results imply a significantly positive effect of the deployment of renewable energy sources on local employment in renewables. However, to examine the net impact – which includes job losses from fossil fuels – additional research is needed. Overall, this thesis adds to the debate about the employment effects of the energy transition and offers a new model specification and evidence on the labour creation effects of renewables in the EU. |
| Supervisor | Molnár, Tímea Laura; LaBelle, Michael |
| Department | Economics MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/powell_natasa.pdf |
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