Chemnitzer Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Forschungsseminar

Green patents are a key indicator to track technological efforts aimed at fighting climate change. Using an original dataset that merges different Patstat releases, we identify three mechanisms that may bias green patent statistics, potentially leading to contradictory findings. First, patent reclassifications due to updates in (green) classification codes result in an 9.2\% increase in the number of green patents when using the most recent classification structure. Second, delays in the adoption of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system introduce regional biases, as approximately 10\% of green patents from late-adopting countries remain undetected in less recent versions of the database. Third, we provide evidence that quality thresholds used to identify high-value inventions significantly shape observed trends in green patenting. Analyzing these mechanisms, our paper reveals that in many studies a substantial number of green patents is systematically overlooked, with the strongest effects observed for recent years and patents originating from Asian patent offices. These findings lead to relevant policy implications. Our results indicate not only that the global rate of green innovation has accelerated, but also that its epicenter has shifted, with an increasing share of green patents originating from emerging technological leaders, particularly in Asia.

As countries and firms increasingly seek ways to strengthen the resilience of their supply chains, this paper studies the global economic costs of a decoupling of global supply chains along geopolitical lines. We explore not only the long-run effects, but also the short-run costs stemming from rigid wages and low substitutability across factors of production and input goods. We find that, in terms of welfare losses, the costs of decoupling are largely higher when accounting for rigidities, while country losses are heterogeneous. A reshaping of global supply chains increases the level of consumer prices in most countries, as well as producer prices, especially for trade-intensive manufacturing sectors. Global supply chain decoupling entails also a reallocation of labour across skill levels. Finally, global trade would decrease substantially, driven by lower trade in intermediate inputs and a higher reliance of countries on domestic production.

It is being increasingly acknowledged that the effects of climate change present significant challenges for all aspects of society. The potential legal and financial issues are pertinent given the possible ramifications for businesses, regulators and the public, and literature analysing the interaction between these is emerging. The 195 Paris Agreement signatory nations are obligated to restrict global temperature increases to well below 2°C, with an ambitious limit of 1.5°C. To achieve this nationally the signatories have adopted carbon budgets, which set quantitative limits on permissible emissions over specific time-frames. In 2023 the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change advised that the European Union's (EU’s) cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should be maintained between 11-14 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2e) from 2030 to 2050 to correspond with the 1.5°C target. Under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 (hereafter the `Act`) Ireland, as an EU member state, contributes to this via legally binding national carbon budgets. Despite its commitments under the Act, and the EU Effort Sharing Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2018/842), Ireland is expected to exceed its carbon budget, leading to its emissions surpassing its `fair share'. This results in `carbon debt' which is likely to cause complex legal and financial issues in the areas of compliance, responsibility and legal remedies. The financial consequences of carbon debt include potentially being held liable for climate damages, increasing carbon pricing obligations and financial penalties. Therefore there will likely be a role for climate finance, that is finance that aims to address climate change, in terms of legal remedies for carbon debt. This paper will investigate the legal consequences of Ireland exceeding its carbon budget, potential legal and financial remedies for this and ways in which climate finance can be embedded into climate law.

In kaum einer anderen westlichen Demokratie sind Vermögen so ungleich verteilt wie in Deutschland. Wir sind ein Hochsteuerland für mittlere Arbeitseinkommen, aber ein Niedrigsteuerland für Vermögende. Wie kann das sein? Ist das gerecht? Warum haben Superreiche geringere Steuer- und Abgabensätze als der Durchschnitt hierzulande? Und wie bekommen wir es hin, dass unser Steuersystem allen dient? Julia Jirmann zeigt leicht verständlich die wesentlichen Zusammenhänge auf. Wer sind Deutschlands Superreiche? Wer erbt am meisten? Wie unterscheiden sich die Verhältnisse in Ost- und Westdeutschland? Wer zahlt welche Steuern und wie viel? Gibt es einen Unterschied zwischen Männern und Frauen? Jirmann räumt mit einigen Mythen auf und macht konkrete Reformvorschläge für ein gerechteres Steuersystem.

Agricultural land makes up 50 % of Germany's terrestrial area. Accordingly, agricultural landscapes are increasingly considered as the source not only of food, but also of multiple environmental public goods (ecosystem services). This is reflected in agri-environmental policy, which is supposed to incentivize the provision of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. At the same time, ongoing climate change exerts increasing pressure on farm businesses to adapt their management strategies. These adaptation efforts have consequences for the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental policy, with potential synergies as well as trade-offs. This presentation will provide insights into an ongoing interdisciplinary project that aims to shed light on the interactions between agri-environmental policy and climate change adaptation. An agent-based simulation model is being developed to represent farmers' management-related decisions and their responses to both climate change impacts and policy instruments. The goal is to identify policy options that minimize trade-offs between climate change adaptation and multifunctionality, i.e. the provision of multiple ecosystem services.

This paper studies the real effects of monetary policy on firms' labor adjustment. Using detailed bank, firm and worker data for Germany, we find that firms reduce employment in response to contractionary monetary policy. We show that this employment reduction results from a relative decline in inflows rather than outflows. Inflows fall in particular for low-wage workers, whereas firms retain high-wage workers. We interpret this as evidence for labor hoarding. Using variation in the bank exposure to monetary policy, we show that these results are driven by the exposure of the firm to the bank-lending channel.