Can subsidies to renewable energy effectively internalise CO2 costs in electricity production? Under current policy design it only matters that the replaced energy is dirty, but not how dirty it is. We use a modified peak-load pricing model, including variable renewable generators and the...

Minimum prices above the market level can lead to ineffcient production and oversupply. We investigate whether this effect is even more pronounced when decision makers are influenced by their social environment. Using data of minimum prices for renewable energy production in Germany, we analyze...

This doctoral thesis, organized in three self-contained chapters, provides an analysis of the economic effects associated with the extraction of natural resources and the transition from an economy based on fossil fuel use to an economy relying primarily on renewable energy sources. Chapter 1...

Negative environmental externalities associated with wind power plants depend on the physical characteristics of turbine installations and associated power lines and the geographical siting. We derive analytically an environmental taxation scheme for achieving the efficient spatial distribution...

There is a broad agreement that renewable energy sources (RES) will play an important role to abate CO₂ emissions but there is a contentious debate about the economic sense to promote RES via subsidies. Many static analyses conclude that subsidizing RES ties up capital which could have been...

We study the spatial misallocation resulting from subsidies for residential solar panels in the US and quantify the associated environmental costs. We build a structural model of solar panel demand and electricity production across the country and estimate the model by combining 1) remotely...

An argument sometimes used to support renewable energy is that it may contribute to job creation. On the other hand, these technologies often face local opposition. On the case of Denmark, the country with the longest experience with wind power, the authors examine whether the installation of...

We study the optimal design of income-contingent subsidies for residential solar panels. Using remotely sensed data on solar panel installations across the contiguous US and a border-discontinuity design, we estimate that the responsiveness of installation rates to subsidies is strongly...

To decarbonize the power sector, policy-makers need to commit to long-term credible rules for climate and energy policy. Otherwise, risk of opportunistic policy-making will impair investments into low-carbon technologies. However, the future benefits and costs of decarbonization are subject to...

In the last two decades, feed-in tariffs (FIT) and renewable portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as two of the most popular policies for supporting renewable electricity (RES-E) generation in the developed world. A few studies have assessed their effectiveness, but most do not account for...