Research

Working Papers

Bommier, A., Goerger, A., Goussebaïle, A., and Nicolaï, J.P. (2019) "Altruistic Foreign Aid and Climate Change Mitigation"

Goerger, A. (2021) "The effects of the EU ETS on pollution abatement investments"

This paper investigates the causal effect of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on pollution abatement investments, relying on firm-level panel data from the French manufacturing industry between 2001 and 2016. First, I find that regulated firms increased their investments that tackle air emissions after 2008, which may be associated with the adoption of low-carbon technologies. Second, the EU ETS modified the firms' investments that mitigate other forms of pollution, such as the generation of waste, or land and water emissions. The EU ETS may thus have had ancillary effects on the firms' pollution levels.

Work in Progress

Goerger, A. "The effectiveness of Environmental Management System standards"

This paper investigates the effects of Environmental Management System standards (EMS standards), such as the ISO 14001, on the environmental performance of French manufacturing plants from 2001 to 2017. The impact of EMS certificates depends on the pollutant considered. For instance, adopters of EMS standards lower their water removals by 6.7% and they increase their production of hazardous waste by 8.6% directly after the certification, while there are no significant effects for the CO2 emissions and the water pollution. Moreover, EMS-certified firms reduce their energy bill by 0.6% per additional year following the certification. The absence of clear-cut conclusions regarding the environmental effectiveness of EMS standards question the efficiency of the eventual subsidies.