Nowadays energy constitutes a very important concern of policy and public debate. It is justified by the effects of climate change and the national strategies to be self-sufficient in the supply of energy. Renewable energies are the alternative and public policies could play a key role in their...

This paper exploits the exogeneity of weather conditions to evaluate renewable energy (RE) subsidy programs in Germany and Spain in terms of their costs for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. We find that both the aggregate costs and the distribution of costs between energy producers and...