Thesis title: Essays in Environmental Macroeconomics
Supervisor: Prof. Barbara Annicchiarico (U. Roma Tre)

Abstract

The disastrous effects of climate change are making increasingly evident the need for drastic reductions in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The goal of the thesis is to provide insights on climate change-related issues and recommendations on policies suited to address them. The first chapter analyzes the performance of alternative climate policies and their interaction with macroprudential regulation in an environmental dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model where polluting firms are hit by idiosyncratic shocks and can default. The second chapter studies how misperceptions and losses of confidence about the productive potential of the non-polluting sector can affect the transition to a low-carbon economy and the 
implementation of environmental policies. The third chapter explores the transmission of climate policy shocks and the response of optimal monetary policy when the economy depends more on fossil resources and energy in the short-run.

Committee: Lorenzo Carbonari, Emanuele Campiglio (U. Bologna), Massimiliano Pisani (BdI).