Research

Peer Reviewed Papers

Paying Income Tax after a Natural Disaster: The Case of the 2010-11 Queensland Floods
(with Mehmet Ulubasoglu)
Journal of Environmental Economics and Mangement, Volme 128, November 2024, 103044.

We investigate the effects of a climatic shock on individuals’ tax deduction and tax payable patterns, alongside their income dynamics. Using individual-level annual tax return data and exploiting the 2010–2011 Queensland Floods in Australia as a natural experiment, we find that the floods affect different income groups differently. They also lead to persistent higher tax deductions for high-income taxpayers. For the population at large, we detect spikes in certain tax deduction items that lasted longer than the income shock. Overall, our findings uncover discernible changes in tax deduction patterns following floods.

Working Papers

Stormy Futures? The Impact of Climatic Shocks on Retirement Savings
(with Mehmet Ulubasoglu)

Climatic shocks introduce additional complexities to individuals’ lives and influence their critical decisions, both present and into the future. We utilise longitudinal administrative data on Australian individual retirement contributions to present the first estimated effects of natural disasters on retirement savings. Using the 2010-2011 Queensland floods as a natural experiment, we document that retirement contributions increase following the disaster. We show that individuals update their risk perceptions post-disaster, which drive changes in their portfolio choices across retirement savings, investment property ownership, and other interest-generating financial instruments. Our findings offer important insights into the relationship between individuals’ planning horizons, retirement savings and their adaptive strategies in maintaining retirement welfare amidst demographic changes and increased environmental risks.

Enabling Circular Economy Dynamics in the Plastics and Steel Industries: Perspectives from Multiple Stakeholders
(with Xi Sun and Sophie Behr)

This paper investigates stakeholder groups’ perspectives on transitioning toward a circular economy (CE) in the plastics and steel value chains . Through semi-structured interviews with 31 business stakeholders, we analyze business strategies, key factors, challenges and opportunities, as well as coordination and regulatory needs for a successful industry-wide CE transition. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of CE regulations in driving CE-oriented business strategies and fostering coordination within fragmented value chains. While stakeholders acknowledge the significance of product design and the crucial role of producers, differing opinions emerge on the role and adequacy of regulations. This nuanced understanding contributes to an evidence-based analysis of the distinct incentives that shape the transitional activities in these industries.

Prioritize to Decarbonize: Thermal Retrofits, Carbon Prices, and Energy Inequality
(with Sophie Behr, Maximilian Longmuir and Karsten Neuhoff)

The energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the heightened vulnerability of low-income households to rising heating costs, particularly those in energy inefficient buildings. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this study examines the distributional impact of heating costs across income deciles and evaluates the effectiveness of policy interventions. We find that low-income tenants are the most vulnerable segment of the population, with elevated risks of energy poverty. While carbon pricing with landlordtenant cost splitting shields low-income households from carbon costs, it fails to offset overall energy price increases. In contrast, a “Worst-First” retrofit strategy, prioritizing upgrades in the least efficient buildings, substantially reduces heating costs and mitigates energy poverty. Our findings highlight the need for targeted retrofit policies to ensure both equitable decarbonization and economic relief for vulnerable households.

Understanding Energy Savings in a Crisis: The Role of Prices and Non-monetary Factors
(with Sophie Behr and Till Köveker)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was accompanied by a significant reduction of its gas supply to Europe, causing sharp energy price surges and prompting governments to respond with public appeals and programs aimed at reducing consumption. This paper investigates the effects of price increases and non-monetary factors, such as public appeals and saving programs, on residential energy savings during the crisis. Using a unique building-level dataset on residential energy consumption and prices in Germany, we identify price-driven savings and energy price elasticities with a DiD-PSM approach. By comparing buildings that faced price increases to buildings with constant prices, we can isolate price-driven savings from contemporaneous non-monetary effects. Our findings reveal that while increased prices led to moderate short-run energy savings, the majority of observed savings were driven by non-monetary factors. Consequently, we identify a relatively low short-run price elasticity of residential heat energy demand of -0.07. Going beyond average effect estimation, we use two machine learning methods to calculate building-level price-driven and non-price-driven savings, then analyzing their variation with socio-economic characteristics using census data.

Work in Progress

Spatial Transmission of the Black Saturday Bushfires in Australia
(with Muhammad Habibur Rahman and Mehmet Ulubasoglu)

Post-disaster Childcare Dynamics: Economic Policy Implications for Australia

German Households’ CO2 Emissions and their Drivers: A nation-wide field experiment
(with Carsten Schröder and Sandra Bohmann)

The Role of Climate Dividends for Public Support of Carbon Taxes
(with Laura Schmitz, Peter Haan, Sandra Bohmann, Lars Felder and Jürgen Schupp)