On Wednesday 29 April, a session of the ISEG Research Seminars will take place from 13.00 to 14.00. The guest speaker will be Olga Chiappinelli.
The ISEG Research Seminars are held every week on Wednesdays, with the participation of professors from ISEG, as well as from other Portuguese and international educational institutions.
Title
The Greener, the Better? Evidence from Government Contractors
Abstract
Governments support the green transition through green public procurement. Using US data, this paper provides the first empirical analysis of the causal effects of green contracts on corporate greenhouse gas emissions and economic performance. We focus on an affirmative programme for sustainable products, which represents one-sixth of the total federal procurement budget, and publicly traded firms, which account for one-third of total US emissions. Our results show that securing green contracts reduces emissions relative to firm size and increases productivity. We find no evidence that the programme selects greener firms, nor that green public procurement sales crowd out private sales.
