Green growth holds the promise that solving environmental problems can at the same time create economic benefits. Yet, until now there is little analytically sound work on the possibility of such a dynamics. In this paper, we investigate conditions under which a transition from brown growth to green growth can improve the economic situation, both in the present and in the future. In our model, we combine three well-documented phenomena: the fact that a major aspect of technical change is learning by doing, the fact that learning by doing can develop in different directions, and the indeterminacy of labour markets resulting from the difficulty of matching the skills of people with the tasks arising in firms. The combination provides new insights for the discussion about the possibilities of green growth.

The paper can be downloaded here: GCF_WorkingPaper1-2018

The goal to keep global warming well below 2°C can only be achieved if private investors shift capital from brown to green infrastructures and technologies. In this working paper, we present a game-theoretic perspective on the transition from brown to green growth. We perceive investment for mitigation as a coordination problem of selecting among multiple equilibria. We discuss how uncertainty in such a “green investment game” could be reduced in order to coordinate actors on the Pareto-superior equilibrium. Read more

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by Jahel Mielke, Hannah Vermaßen, Saskia Ellenbeck

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by Carlo Jaeger, Julia Jaeger

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by Klaus Hasselmann, Antonio Ruiz de Elvira, Martin Welp