Press Release
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco hosts online seminar series
On July 16, James Stock, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University, was the first speaker in the Virtual Seminar on Climate Economics, an online seminar hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Colleagues from the University of Hamburg, Arizona State University, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond provided additional organizing support.
Stock presented his research on “The Macroeconomic Impact of Europe’s Carbon Taxes.” Focusing on European countries that have implemented carbon taxes over the past thirty years, he estimates the macroeconomic impacts of these taxes on GDP and employment growth rates for various specifications and samples. His point estimates suggest a zero to modest positive impact on GDP and total employment growth rates. More importantly, he finds no robust evidence of a negative effect of the tax on employment or GDP growth.
Stock’s presentation shares the same title as his paper, co-authored by Professor Gilbert Metcalf of Tufts University. It was published as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research in July 2020.