Despite its massive geological endowment and receiving what could be considered the largest windfall in its economic history, Venezuela entered 2020 in the middle of an unprecedented economic crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic and turbulence in oil markets represent the latest in a string of problems that expose the country’s vulnerability.
This working paper studies optimal taxation in a dynamic stochastic economy in which there is uncertainty about the effects of climate change. It concludes that model uncertainty has significant quantitative implications regarding optimal greenhouse gas emissions and the optimal mix of fossil fuel used.
Technological progress in the exploration and production of oil and gas during the 2000s has led to a boom in upstream investment and has increased the domestic supply of fossil fuels. It is unknown, however, how many jobs this boom has created. Using time-series methods at the national level and dynamic panel methods at the state level to understand how the increase in exploration and production activity has impacted employment, this paper finds robust statistical support for the hypothesis that changes in drilling for oil and gas as captured by rig counts do, in fact, have an economically meaningful and positive impact on employment.
Mark Agerton, Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Ted Loch-TemzelidesAugust 22, 2014