Dissertation Defense: “Essays on the Economics of the Energy Transition”, Minwoo Hyun, University of California, Santa Barbara
Speaker
Minwoo Hyun, University of California, Santa Barbara
Biography
Minwoo is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Special Sworn Researcher with the U.S. Census Bureau. His research focuses on the economics of energy and the environment, with a particular interest in labor and public policy issues. His current works explore the economic challenges of the energy transition, including the labor reallocation of fossil fuel workers and the fiscal impacts on coal dependent local governments.
Title
“Essays on the Economics of the Energy Transition”
Abstract
This dissertation examines how changes in fossil fuel activity reshape labor markets, youth outcomes, and local public finances in the United States.
Chapter 1 uses matched employer-employee data on 1.35 million workers separated from fossil fuel extraction (1999-2019) to estimate the impacts of local fossil fuel labor demand shocks. Employment probabilities fall sharply after exposure, and earnings drift down for seven years with only partial recovery by year ten. Workers who remain in fossil fuels, disproportionately men in sector-specific roles, lose nearly twice as much as sector switchers, consistent with limited occupational mobility. Among non-switchers, losses are largest in markets with high employer concentration, indicating monopsony depresses reemployment wages. Geographic movers fare worse than stayers, reflecting negative selection and moves into metropolitan niches where fossil fuel or low-skill services remain highly concentrated.
Chapter 2 links coal production, county arrest records, and school-finance data to examine community effects of coal busts. Declines raise arrests across ages, with larger proportional increases among juveniles, especially for status offenses like truancy. Busts coincide with school-revenue shortfalls and cuts to operational spending notably reductions in instructional aides and non-classroom support. Policing resources and family/child-abuse measures show little movement, supporting a school-finance mechanism for the juvenile effects.
Chapter 3 analyzes how coal contraction affects local government budgets using plausibly exogenous variation from geology and staggered shale-play activations. Coal declines shrink own-source revenues and, counter to insurance, also reduce intergovernmental transfers, chiefly state general-purpose aid. Governments cut spending on housing/community development, workforce programs, and education; neighboring non-coal counties also lose revenue and spending. Calibrations show that a welfare-maximizing rule can undercompensate small but highly exposed places, whereas an equalization rule stabilizes proportional shocks and targets aid to the hardest-hit and affected neighbors. Observed transfers were procyclical and diverged from both benchmarks.
Event Details
Join us to hear Minwoo’s dissertation defense. He will be presenting his dissertation titled, "Essays on the Economics of the Energy Transition". To access a copy of the dissertation, you must have an active UCSB NetID and password.
