Essays on Technological Change and its Environmental Impacts

Abstract

Given the climate crisis and the sharp rise in energy costs, discussions on the potential of new technologies to reduce energy consumption and mitigate environmental damage are frequently part of the public debate. In the thesis at hand, which is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the academic degree of doctor rerum politicarum, I contribute to this discourse by shedding new light on the measurement of current technological progress and its impact on energy use patterns, as well as changes in mobility. To this end, I apply econometric, text mining, and machine learning methods to firm-level data. My dissertation consists of four self-contained essays, which I wrote between December 2018 and April 2023 as an external doctoral candidate at the Chair of Economics of Digitalisation at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. During this time, I was employed as a researcher at ZEW Mannheim. The thesis is divided into six chapters.