Performative State Capacity and Climate (In)Action

Immanuel Feld and Thiemo Fetzer
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Immanuel Feld: University of Warwick & Bonn and affiliated with CEPR, CAGE, NIESR, ECONtribute, Grantham Institute

No 281, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: Climate action requires significant public- and private sector investment to achieve meaningful reductions in carbon emissions. This paper documents that large-scale austerity, coupled with barriers to flows of data and a lack of (digital) skills in (local) government, may have been a significant barrier to delivering climate action in the form of retrofitting. Decomposing heterogeneity in esti-mated treatment effects of a large-scale energy efficiency savings program that was rolled out through a regression discontinuity design in the early 2010s, we find that both the extent of austerity-induced local budget cuts and poor digital connectivity – may be responsible for up to 30% fewer retrofit installations that counterfactually would have taken place had it not been for austerity.

Keywords: state capacity; austerity; skills; climate action; public economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 H54 H76 O33 Q54 Q58 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_281_2024.pdf First version, 2024 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Performative State Capacity and Climate (In)Action (2024)
Working Paper: Performative State Capacity and Climate (In)Action (2024)
Working Paper: Performative State Capacity and Climate (In) Action (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:281

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