This line of research focuses on analyzing policies to promote renewable energy. It seeks to identify the most suitable market mechanisms and public policies to boost investments in renewable energy. Two elements play a prominent role in the analysis, which are both theoretical and empirical:

This work analyzes the functioning of long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and their effectiveness in promoting investment in renewable energies. The novelty lies in analyzing how counterparty risk affects PPA prices, the protection these contracts provide producers against spot market volatility, and the resulting incentives to invest. The model is innovative in placing counterparty risk at the center of the analysis, evaluating public policies designed to overcome market failures.

This line of research studies the optimal design of auctions for renewable energy, drawing on the Iberian electricity market experience. The main goal is to identify the optimal exposure to short-term price volatility, balancing production decisions and investors’ risk premiums. Its novelty is the combined empirical and theoretical approach to evaluate and optimize auction and contract designs to promote efficient renewable expansion.

The second line of research explores the socio-economic and demographic effects of green investments, developing a novel methodological framework to analyze the heterogeneity of the effects of climate and energy policies. Additionally, the impact of renewable energy investments on migration flows and population in rural areas is evaluated, identifying how these investments can mitigate depopulation.

This project develops a new methodological framework to analyze heterogeneous treatment effects in event studies, providing tools useful for quantifying climate and energy policy effects. It extends econometric results to create a highly flexible algorithm for event studies, overcoming traditional reliance on averages. This toolkit will be useful in energy and environmental economics, among other fields.

The energy transition could positively affect rural municipalities, which often have unused land and renewable resources. Investments can create local jobs and stimulate rural growth, counteracting depopulation and urban migration. Anecdotal evidence, such as in Higueruela (Spain), shows renewable projects fostering local employment and community benefits. This research examines whether such evidence reflects a broader phenomenon or depends on municipal policies.

The third line of research addresses the macroeconomic effects of the Energy Transition. The aggregate and distributive impacts of climate volatility and energy price shocks on income and employment is analyzed, using high-frequency, long-term data. Additionally, the effects of the Energy Transition on small open economies are studied, developing models that include clean and polluting energies as substitutive production inputs.

This study focuses on the distributional effects of oil price shocks on income and employment in a developed country, using German administrative data from 1970 onward. Unlike prior work focusing on aggregate impacts, this examines effects across income groups, testing whether low-income workers are more vulnerable.

Climate change creates extreme weather events that damage resources, capital, and human capital, leading to productivity declines. Building on climate-economy models (Nordhaus, Golosov, etc.), this project considers how increased dispersion in climate-related costs raises volatility.

We propose extending the NK-DSGE canonical model for a small open economy to include both dirty (fossil-based) and clean (renewable) energy inputs. These are imperfect substitutes, and firms can influence factor efficiency via technical change.

The fourth line of research examines the political economy of the Energy Transition and green taxation. The implications of policies that promote the Energy Transition is analyzed, focusing on environmental taxation and its distributive impact. Additionally, it studies incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles and the determinants of discourse around green public policies in the Congress of Deputies.

This theoretical work examines how mechanism design can reconcile efficiency and social justice in environmental policies. The goal is to identify the optimal mix of taxes, fiscal transfers, and green investments that reduce emissions efficiently and distribute costs fairly.

This project analyzes subsidies for electric vehicles, an important part of Spain’s energy transition strategy (MOVES program, 2019–2023, costing €500M). It will study their effectiveness and distributional impacts.

Despite climate awareness, public policies may fall short of Agenda 2030 goals. This research investigates the drivers of policy change and politicians’ incentives to pursue “green policies.” Politicians may act according to personal beliefs but electoral incentives, even denying scientific evidence if politically costly.