Renewable Energy and Labour Market Outcomes in United States
Description
To examine the effects of renewable energy consumption on labour market outcomes, the study compiles data from multiple official U.S. sources. Information on renewable energy consumption is sourced from the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), with particular emphasis on disaggregating renewable energy by both energy source and end-use sector. Specifically, the dataset includes total renewable energy consumption alongside its major components—biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind energy. Corresponding sectoral consumption data for each renewable energy source are also collected for the industrial, electric power, commercial, and residential sectors. To facilitate robustness analyses, aggregate renewable energy consumption and total renewable energy consumption within each sector are additionally incorporated. Furthermore, total fossil fuel consumption is retrieved from the EIA to account for conventional energy use. Aggregate energy variables, including fossil fuel consumption, are measured in quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTU), whereas sector-specific energy consumption is expressed in trillion BTU. Labour market indicators, comprising unemployment, employment, labour force participation, and seasonally adjusted inflation, are obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Gross Domestic Product (GDP), measured in billions of U.S. dollars, is sourced from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). The empirical analysis covers the period from January 2000 to December 2024. Because GDP is originally reported on a quarterly basis, it is converted to monthly frequency using the Quadratic Match Sum interpolation procedure to ensure consistency with the monthly frequency of the remaining variables.