Publication
EMF OP 64: Creating Jobs With "Green" Power Sources
Occasional Paper
This note evaluates some widely quoted estimates supporting the substantial benefits of green jobs and places them in the context of other possible government responses. It concludes that the advantages of green jobs are vastly overstated. Given the uncertainty about all the assumptions that enter such calculations, the best guess is that the job impact will be relatively small and the direction unknown. This conclusion, of course, says nothing about whether the government should promote green energy for energy and environmental reasons. But it does suggest strongly that governments should pay much more attention to economic costs than to job creation.
Publication Date
April 1, 2009