Konstantin Sommer
Welcome to my website!
I'm Konstantin Sommer, PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Amsterdam.
My research focuses on environmental and international economics with a focus on econometric applications. My supervisors are Franc Klaassen and Henri de Groot (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Until June 2023, I am working in the Trade and International Integration Research Program of the World Bank in Washington DC. All current working papers are available upon request.
Curriculum VitaeConnect with me:
- E-Mail: k.h.l.sommer2"at"uva.nl
- Linkedin: Konstantin Sommer
My Research
The effects of market integration on pollution: an analysis of EU enlargements
We study the effects of market integration on manufacturing emission intensities of CO2, SOx, and NOx. For this, we analyse the 2004 and 2007 EU enlargements in a sectoral panel with data on almost all EU member states from 1995 to 2015. We pay close attention to relevant channels of trade, regulation, and efficiency. Overall, the enlargements have resulted in a reduction of emission intensities in new member states: new regulations, which accession countries needed to adopt, have lowered pollution intensities strongly; induced improvements in productivity have further reduced them; and trade integration into the EU has had insignificant effects on emission intensities. We also do not find evidence of within-EU pollution haven effects and thus of leakage from old to new member states. For old members, trade integration, if anything, increased emission intensities, but efficiency improvements have also contributed to cleaner manufacturing sectors here.
The EU ETS’s time-varying impact on Competitiveness and Investments: Evidence from Dutch Manufacturing
We study the effects of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) on employment and profits as well as on the investment decisions of Dutch manufacturing firms. Motivated both by sizable differences between firms that are regulated in different phases and by the gradual increase in regulatory stringency, we pay close attention to treatment effect heterogeneity between firms and over time. We use microdata from Statistics Netherlands to apply two difference-in-differences (DiD) estimators: (1) a matched two-way fixed effects regression and (2) a recently developed, more flexible DiD method, designed for staggered treatment and treatment effect heterogeneity. We find that firms that were first regulated in phase 1 and 2 experience temporary employment losses of between 7 to 9\% early in the regulation, but we do not find conclusive evidence for changes in profits. Firms that were regulated the earliest reduced their investments throughout all phases.
Project title
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec commodo finibus tristique. Maecenas dignissim condimentum sem eu tincidunt. Curabitur in dui quis magna vestibulum pulvinar a ut urna. Nam pellentesque mattis urna. Aenean eget lectus sit amet turpis facilisis consectetur quis vel ante. Integer in massa ut nibh ultricies sagittis imperdiet in ante. Nam sed turpis vel ante placerat feugiat ac tempus magna. Nam aliquet ullamcorper dolor non hendrerit.