How Do Energy Prices, and Labor and Environmental Regulations Affect Local Manufacturing Employment Dynamics? A Regression Discontinuity Approach
40 Pages Posted: 22 Nov 2010 Last revised: 11 Mar 2023
Date Written: November 2010
Abstract
Manufacturing industries differ with respect to their energy intensity, labor-to-capital ratio and their pollution intensity. Across the United States, there is significant variation in electricity prices and labor and environmental regulation. This paper uses a regression discontinuity approach to examine whether the basic logic of comparative advantage can explain the geographical clustering of U.S. manufacturing. Using a unified empirical framework, we document that energy-intensive industries concentrate in low electricity price counties, labor-intensive industries avoid pro-union counties, and pollution-intensive industries locate in counties featuring relatively lax Clean Air Act regulation. We use our estimates to predict the likely jobs impacts of regional carbon mitigation efforts.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
The Transitional Costs of Sectoral Reallocation: Evidence from the Clean Air Act and the Workforce
By Reed Walker
-
The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing
By Michael Greenstone, John A. List, ...
-
The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing
By Michael Greenstone, John A. List, ...
-
The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing
By Michael Greenstone, John A. List, ...
-
By Janet Currie, Lucas W. Davis, ...
-
Centralization and Accountability: Theory and Evidence from the Clean Air Act
By Federico Boffa, Amedeo Piolatto, ...