Till Köveker

Till Köveker

he/his

PhD student & research associate @DIW Berlin &
@TU Berlin

Posts by Collection

policy

publications

Clean Production, Dirty Sourcing: How Embodied Emissions Alter the Environmental Footprint of Exporters

Published in DIW Discussion Paper, 2025

This paper revisits the exporter’s environmental premium (EEP) by incorporating emissions embodied in domestically and internationally sourced intermediate inputs. Combining administrative firm-level data and customs records for German manufacturers with an environmentally extended input-output table and fuel specific emission factors, we document three stylized facts: (i) embodied emissions account for over half of firms’ total emissions; (ii) exporters’ production involves disproportionately more embodied emissions, particularly through international sourcing; and (iii) once embodied emissions are considered, the EEP reverses: exporters appear cleaner based on production-related emissions alone, but dirtier in total emissions. We rationalize these patterns in a sourcing model and test its predictions using a shift-share IV strategy based on foreign demand shocks. Export expansion lowers the production-related emission intensity without affecting total emissions, underscoring the role of sourcing in shaping firm-level environmental outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for embodied emissions when evaluating the welfare and environmental consequences of trade liberalization.

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Understanding energy savings in a crisis: The role of prices and non-monetary factors

Published in DIW Discussion Paper, 2025

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was accompanied by a significant reduction of its gas supply to Europe, causing sharp energy price surges and prompting governments to respond with public appeals and programs aimed at reducing consumption. This paper investigates the effects of price increases and non-monetary factors, such as public appeals and saving programs, on residential energy savings during the crisis. Using a unique building-level dataset on residential energy consumption and prices in Germany, we identify price-driven savings and energy price elasticities with a DiD-PSM approach. By comparing buildings that faced price increases to buildings with constant prices, we can isolate price-driven savings from contemporaneous non-monetary effects. Our findings reveal that while increased prices led to moderate short-run energy savings, the majority of observed savings were driven by non-monetary factors. Consequently, we identify a relatively low short-run price elasticity of residential heat energy demand of -0.07. Going beyond average effect estimation, we use two machine learning methods to calculate building-level price-driven and non-price-driven savings, then analyzing their variation with socio-economic characteristics using census data.

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Estimating Green Premiums Using Internal Carbon Prices

Published in DIW Discussion Paper, 2026

Empirical evidence on price premiums for green intermediate products is scarce, especially for energy-intensive basic materials. Evidence on such green premiums is relevant, as they may affect companies incentives to invest in green production technologies. Moreover, green premiums are important for the design of green support programmes, as support levels could be adjusted for companies’ green revenues. This paper proposes a new approach for estimating green premiums for basic materials. Basic material buyers’ additional willingness to pay for green inputs is estimated based on their reported internal carbon prices. This green willingness to pay is used to construct a demand curve for green basic materials. Short-to medium-term green supply is derived from low-carbon basic material production facilities that have been announced or are under construction. The proposed methodology is then applied to estimate and predict green premiums in the steel sector. The results indicate that green steel premiums will be too low and too transient to generate significant incentives to invest in green primary steel production facilities. Other policies such as effective carbon prices and carbon contracts for difference are and will be central in driving the green steel transition. Green steel premiums may only play a complementary role in the first years of the transition.

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Mitigation versus Competitiveness? Industry Compensation in the European Union Emissions Trading System

Published in CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper, 2026

Carbon pricing policies are usually combined with compensation for exposed firms to prevent adverse competitiveness effects. In cap-and-trade systems, this carbon cost compensation mostly occurs through free allocation of emission permits. Using an administrative panel of German manufacturing firms, this paper investigates how free allocation in the European Union Emissions Trading System affects firms’ competitiveness and their incentives to reduce emissions. Leveraging a reform of free allocation rules in a continuous difference-in-differences design, we find that that a reduction of freely allocated emission permits decreased firms’ emission intensity. Our results suggest that this decrease is driven by energy efficiency improvements instead of outsourcing of emission intensive production. On the other hand, we do not find statistically significant effects on firms’ employment, sales, value added, investments and exports – indicating that the reduction in free permits did not reduce firms’ competitiveness.

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talks

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.

Teaching experience 2

Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.