This paper reviews the literature on (potential) green recovery measures in the context of the global financial crisis and
the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on their macroeconomic effects. We find that spending for renewables and energy efficiency
is particularly promising with regard to macroeconomic impacts. Moreover, the empirical evidence suggests that green recovery
measures are associated with larger macroeconomic effects compared to conventional non-green recovery spending. We also derive
lessons learned with regard to open questions and issues as well as accompanying framework conditions which could enhance
a macroeconomically successful implementation of green recovery measures.
Additional green public investment at the Member-State level will be needed to address the climate emergency as a central
priority in the EU. This chapter discusses two paths to enable increased green public investments in the EU: through possible
amendments to the current EU fiscal framework or through funding from the EU budget. The Commission's proposal from November
2022 regarding orientations for a reform of the EU-governance framework widens the leeway for debt-financed public investment.
However, existing green public investment needs are not considered sufficiently. Therefore, we discuss several options to
enable the flexibility of national budgets to ensure a level of green public investment which – together with private resources
– is sufficient to close the existing green investment gaps. In addition, the use of the lever the EU budget theoretically
offers to contribute to green public investment in the EU needs to be intensified. At about 1 percent of EU GNI (1.7 percent
of EU GNI including NGEU) the overall volume of the EU budget is limited. The more important are steps to strengthen spending
in policies that create EU value added, inter alia green public investment.
In view of the challenges posed by climate change and the increasingly ambitious climate targets around the world, the search
for effective climate policy instruments is gaining momentum. Carbon pricing, for example, in the form of a carbon tax, and
its effects are therefore attracting increasing attention in academic as well as policy discussions. We review the empirical
effects of carbon taxes with regard to several impact dimensions commonly studied in the literature: environmental effectiveness,
macroeconomic effects, impacts on competitiveness and innovation, distributional implications, and public acceptance. An increasing
body of empirical studies shows that carbon taxes can effectively reduce carbon emissions or at least dampen their growth
while not negatively affecting economic growth, employment, and competitiveness. The existing empirical evidence suggests
that the distributional impact of carbon taxes depends on the type of energy use and the indicators to capture distributional
effects, as well as on household characteristics. Lump-sum transfers are shown to be better suited to mitigate regressive
effects for lower incomes, while higher incomes benefit more from a reduction of labour taxes. Public acceptance of carbon
taxes can be increased by providing public information, avoiding negative distributional effects, and channelling part of
the revenues into "environmental projects".
Commissioned by: Public Policy and Management Institute
Study by: Austrian Institute of Economic Research – Public Policy and Management Institute
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented disruptions to EU economies and societies. An increasing body of evidence shows
that the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic hit women particularly hard, and that the adverse consequences of the crisis
will affect women more severely than men. The increase in gender inequalities that has resulted from the COVID-19 crisis points
to the importance of placing gender equality at the heart of the EU policy response to mitigate the socioeconomic effects
of the pandemic in both the short and the long terms. This study offers a unique gender assessment of the EU recovery response
to the COVID-19 pandemic in both the short and the long terms.
Im Rahmen der Ökologisierung von Abgabensystemen spielen föderale Aspekte in der Regel keine Rolle. Die finanzwissenschaftliche
Literatur bietet jedoch Kriterien zur Festlegung der staatlichen Ebene, die für die Bepreisung unterschiedlicher negativer
Externalitäten am besten geeignet wäre. Im österreichischen Kontext wären sowohl die stärkere Ökologisierung des Abgabensystems
als auch in bestimmten Bereichen eine stärkere Dezentralisierung umweltbezogener Steuern und Abgaben überlegenswert.