From Fossil Fuels to Renewables: Studies on the Effects of Resource Endowments and Climate Policy on Economic Outcomes

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 assesses the question of a potential resource curse in Colombia by analyzing the effect of oil production on different indicators of the development level of municipalities: school enrollment rates, infant mortality rates, and average results of the nationwide school-leaving examination. Moreover, it considers the role that local institutions play in this context. Chapter 2 analyzes how greenhouse gas emissions of companies in OECD and BRICS countries have developed in response to policies aiming at reducing fossil fuel use by providing financial incentives to expand renewable energy adoption and to improve energy efficiency. Chapter 3 provides an extended Input-Output approach to study the economic effects of increased investments in renewable energies and energy efficiency measures. The methodology is tailored to make it applicable to subnational regions and accounts for the scarcity of financial resources and factors of production. Furthermore, Chapter 3 applies the methodology to quantify the effects of an intended energy transition in three German districts.