Services and the Promise of Clean Growth
POSITION FILLED
FACULTY SUPERVISOR(S):
Michael Peters and Fabrizio Zilibotti
PROJECT AND POSITION DESCRIPTION:
We are looking for a pre-doc to work with us on a project in the area of Economic Growth and Technological Change. We aim to understand the consequences of tertiarization, that is the rise in the service sector, for the future of economic growth and mankind’s impact on the environment. In the US, services have been growing rapidly in the past decades and currently account for more than three quarters of employment. Moreover, total emissions have fallen in the last decade, partly because services are comparably clean in that they generate much lower emissions per dollar of value added than the manufacturing sector. Interestingly, the same trend occurs in most developing countries, where service employment is on the rise, despite their low levels of income per capita.
Does that mean that clean growth is possible if economic growth were to originate in the service sector? Could service-led growth offer a viable alternative to the much-discussed scenario of “de-growth”, whereby policy-makers face a trade-off between material well-being and a smaller environmental footprint? Should governments around the world encourage productivity growth in the service sector to speed up the transition towards a “weightless” economy? And how do these considerations play out in a globalized world, where manufacturing production can be outsourced, but emissions’ impact on the climate are global in nature?
In this project, we aim to make progress on these questions using theory, data, and quantitative methods.
REQUISITE SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS:
• Strong quantitative background: This could include Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Economics, Data Science, Computer Science or other degrees with substantial quantitative coursework
• Strong computer skills including programming in Stata and/or R and MATLAB and/or Julia
• Strong academic record and interest in pursuing a PhD in economics
• Ability to work independently
Prior experience as a research assistant in Economics or a related field is preferred but not required