The OMDS/VGSE Vienna Joint Economics seminar is held weekly on Thursdays during the term.
VJE-Seminars scheduled in December:
- Speaker: Marcelo Zouain Pedroni (University of Amsterdam)
- Title: Optimal Climate Policy with Incomplete Markets
- Time: Thursday, Dec. 11, 1:15 – 2:45 pm
- Location: Lecture Hall 9 (1-floor), OMP-1
- Abstract: How should governments design climate policies in the presence of inequality, uninsurable risk, and fiscal constraints? To address this question, we develop a climate-economy model with incomplete markets and idiosyncraticlabor-income risk, where Ricardian equivalence fails and optimal long-run capital taxes are positive, leading to important inter-temporal wedges. We analytically show that the optimal carbon tax equals the social cost of carbon (SCC) adjusted for fiscal distortions. Calibrating the model to the U.S., we show that these adjustments are quantitatively negligible: high levels of household inequality, income risk, and fiscal distortions do not, in themselves, justify lowering climate ambitions. Welfare gains under the optimalpolicy come almost entirely from efficiency and environmental amenities, with almost no effect on redistribution and insurance, and are fairly evenly distributed across households.
- Speaker: Morgane Richard (Sciences Po)
- Title: The Spatial and Distributive Implications of Working-from-Home: A General Equilibrium Model
- Time: Thursday, Dec. 4, 1:15 – 2:45 pm
- Location: Lecture Hall 9 (1-floor), OMP-1
- Abstract: I study the impact of the recent rise in remote work on households’ consumption, wealth and housing decisions, examining both short-runand longrun effects. Using detailed UK property-level housing data and a heterogeneous agent model with endogenous housing tenure and city geography, I show that remote work shifts households’ housing demand by increasing the demand for space and reducing the commuting costs. It affects where people live in the city and their housing wealth accumulation. The effects vary by access to remote work, income, and wealth. The rise in work-from-home can be compared to a suburb-wide gentrification shock as wealthy telecommuters opt for larger suburban homes, displacing marginal owners who turn to renting. In the long-run, work-from-home leads to the rise of a tele-premium. The housing market acts as the bridge through which the effects of work-from-home spill over to workers who cannot telecommute.
