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SeedPublished 2026-10-23

Coal phase-out and local labour markets

A "just transition" is now a common theme in the economics journals, and many coal plants and mines have announced closure dates. Closures known years in advance are a rare chance to see whether workers and towns can prepare. What happens to coal workers' earnings, and to the towns around them?

economicsenergylabor

What prompted this#

Since October 2025, "just transition" appears on 38 papers, 36 of them in economics journals, and "coal-fired power plants" on 12. Energy topics are rising on the trends page, from energy markets to critical minerals.

Questions#

  • When a coal plant or mine closes, how much do its workers' earnings fall, and for how long, compared with workers at plants that stay open?
  • Do announced closure dates let workers and towns adjust earlier, softening the blow?
  • Do transition funds, such as the EU's Just Transition Fund, reach the affected workers and towns, and do they help?

Data that could help#

Plant closure dates (Global Coal Plant Tracker, national registers), linked employer-employee data or local labour statistics, and transition fund allocations.

Next step#

Compile the announced and actual closure dates of coal plants in one country and compare employment in their counties with similar counties without closures.

The keywords this note follows, in the tracked finance, accounting, economics, management, operations research and AI journals as of 2026-10-26
KeywordPapers, last 30 daysRankPapers per month, Oct 23 – Oct 26*Papers, last 36 months
just transition0–72
coal-fired power plants1#288135

Markdown version of this note: /ideas/coal-phase-out-and-local-labour-markets.md

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Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Coal phase-out and local labour markets. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/coal-phase-out-and-local-labour-markets

@misc{scholar4ai-ideas-coal-phase-out-and-local-labour-markets,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Coal phase-out and local labour markets},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/coal-phase-out-and-local-labour-markets}},
  urldate = {2026-10-23},
  note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}

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