Presenter and Abstract

Green Jobs: Good for Workers, Good for Firms?  

Transitions towards greener production paradigms are profoundly reshaping skill requirements, work-content and competitive strategies, with potentially far-reaching implications and trade-offs for firms and individuals. The seminar offers a twofold perspective on green jobs, examining their quality beyond the mere wage premium and exploring how their prevalence within firms may signal the adoption of green practices and help explain differences in firm performance. The analyses draw on a large scale Europe-wide individual level dataset and linked employer–employee data, based on administrative data, on the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Results show that workers’ perceptions of meaningful work increase with the green content of their occupations, with a stronger association in countries exhibiting higher levels of environmental consciousness. The evidence also shows that a higher share of green workers within firms helps explain, at least in part, heterogeneities in productivity and profitability across firms. Far from offering an entirely positive picture, we discuss the policy implications in the context of a fair and just transition towards sustainable production paradigms.