The greening of the European automobile industry and its labour effects: an empirical and regional analysis

The paper aims at investigating which green technological trajectory has impacted the most the employment and labour productivity levels among European car manufacturers and the auto suppliers over the past 20+ years. Our econometric analyses show that, while eco-innovations related to full hybrid (HEVs) and full electric vehicles (BEVs) have exerted a negative effect on labour levels among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the production of BEVs-related technologies has steered a positive effect on labour among suppliers, supporting the hypothesis of a labour shift from the OEMs to the suppliers’ ecosystem (e.g., batteries, electronics). On the other hand, electromobility solutions have impacted positively the OEMs’ labour productivity, which in turn declined among the suppliers. A regional analysis reveals that our results are driven by ‘core automotive’ countries, namely Germany, France, and Italy, while the European countries in the semi-periphery and integrated periphery are still lagging in the electrification process.