Jobs Versus the Environment: An Industry-Level Perspective

摘要

The possibility that workers could be adversely affected by increasingly stringent environ- mental policies has led to claims of a "jobs versus the environment" trade-off by both business and labor leaders. The present research examines this claim at the industry level for four heav- ily polluting industries: pulp and paper mills, plastic manufacturers, petroleum refiners, and iron and steel mills. Combining a unique plant-level data set with industry-level demand infor- mation, we find that increased environmental spending generally does not cause a significant change in employment.