Abstract
We use a data-driven methodology to quantify the importance of different skills in performing green tasks, aiming to estimate the green potential of occupations in Switzerland. By this we mean the potential of an occupation to be able to perform green tasks on the basis of the skills attributed to it, whereby it is irrelevant whether the occupation already bundles green tasks or not. The results show that occupations with a high green potential are predominantly those with an engineering and technical background. In order to substantiate our green potential measure, we provide evidence of a positive association between demand of employment in occupations with high green potential and an increase in the implicit tax rate on greenhouse gas emissions. The share of employment in occupations with a green potential above a reasonable threshold in the total Swiss labour force is 16.7% (number of persons employed) and 18.8% (full-time equivalents). These employed persons are, on average, younger, more often men, have a higher level of educational attainment and a higher probability of having immigrated than employed persons in occupations with low green potential.
Highlights
Environmental awareness has increased in the population in recent years, especially against the background of climate change
The results show that occupations with a high green potential are predominantly those with an engineering and technical background
We use changes in the implicit tax rate on greenhouse gas emissions at a two-digit industry level to investigate whether this is associated with a heterogeneous change in the demand for workers with higher green potential relative to those with lower green potential
Summary
Environmental awareness has increased in the population in recent years, especially against the background of climate change. We add to this literature by providing further evidence of heterogeneous labour demand responses associated with increased greenhouse gas emission taxes as a proxy for environmental policy stringency, using Switzerland as an example After this brief review of the literature, the section deals with the methodological approach and the data we use to estimate the green potential of occupations in Switzerland. The chosen value can be justified as follows: First, the choice of the threshold value is empirically supported by the results from Table 4, showing a highly significant positive association between an increase in the implicit emission tax and demand for occupations with a green potential equal to or above 0.5, whereas the estimated effect for occupations with a green potential below 0.5 is insignificant. The shares for three sectors that were still among
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