CEP | People | Mirabelle Muûls

Biography

Dr Mirabelle Muuls is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the Imperial College Business School and the programme director of the MSc Climate Change, Management and Finance. She is a co-project leader in the IDLES research programme. In 2018, she received the Imperial College President's medal for Excellence in Education. In 2015, she was awarded together with her colleagues the Erik Kempe Award in Environmental and Resource Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Current areas of research include:

Economics of climate change: climate policies' evaluation, EU ETS and carbon markets, firm-level response and management practices.
Energy demand: COVID-19 impact on energy consumption, teleworking, smart-meters and incentives, flexibility of energy demand.
Energy efficiency, investment and innovation: corporate drivers and barriers to the net-zero carbon transition.

Publications

Blog

What's holding back the green transition?

New research from Imperial College Business School reveals what's stopping businesses from taking action to protect our overheated planet.... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls

13 November 2024

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

in brief... Designing carbon markets that deliver change

Ever since the European Union created its market-based carbon policy, governments and businesses have been keen to assess its impact. Jonathan Colmer, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich Wagner explain why analysing ... Read more...

Jonathan Colmer, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner

18 October 2024

Journal article

Management Practices and Climate Policy in China

We investigate how management quality moderates the impact of carbon pricing on Chinese firms. Based on interviews with managers and lead engineers at manufacturing firms in Hubei and Beijing, we construct a novel index ... Read more...

Jing Cao, Soo Keong Yong, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls, Peiyao Shen, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux

01 September 2024

Blog

Do carbon markets work?

Ever since the EU created its market-based carbon policy, governments and businesses have been keen to see an impact. But analysing how effective policies can be on a noisy economic and global stage is complex - and hard... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls

07 June 2024

Journal article

Big oil and the energy transition: Evidence from M&A

International Oil Companies (IOCs) represent a significant source of capital and expertise that could be deployed to contribute to the investment required to achieve the energy transition to a low carbon future. This pap... Read more...

James W. Hamilton, Adam Hawkes and Mirabelle Muûls

11 September 2023

Journal article

Unraveling firms: demand, productivity and markups heterogeneity

We develop a novel framework that simultaneously allows recovering heterogeneity in demand, quantity TFP and markups across firms while leaving the correlation between the three dimensions unrestricted. We accomplish thi... Read more...

Emanuele Forlani, Ralf Martin, Giordano Mion and Mirabelle Muûls

01 August 2023

Blog

Do Carbon Prices Affect Stock Prices?

Patrick Bolton, Adrian Lam and Mirabelle Muuls discuss whether the EU cap-and-trade system has resulted in a signficant financial impact on the companies that are under the scheme and whether it has motivated them to red... Read more...

Patrick Bolton, Adrian Lam and Mirabelle Muûls

26 April 2023

Chapter

Firms and finance during the green transition

Creating economically and politically legitimate solutions to tackle climate change is one of the most pressing and challenging issues of our time. For emerging and developing economies, the task is made more difficult d... Read more...

Ralph De Haas, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Helena Schweiger

01 November 2022

CEP discussion papers

Managerial and financial barriers during the green transition

Using data on 10,769 firms across 22 emerging markets, we show that both credit constraints and weak green management hold back corporate investment in green technologies embodied in new machinery, equipment and vehicles... Read more...

Ralph De Haas, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Helena Schweiger

07 March 2022

Journal article

Searching for carbon leaks in multinational companies

Does a unilateral climate change policy cause companies to shift the location of production, thereby creating carbon leakage? In this paper, we analyze the effect of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) o... Read more...

Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Caterina Gennaioli, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Thomas Stoerk

01 March 2022

Blog

How are climate change policies affecting firms' competitiveness?

Policies to tackle climate change can impose costs on firms, especially those with high emissions of greenhouse gases, potentially reducing their competitiveness in global markets. Such measures can also encourage innova... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls

02 December 2021

Blog

Barriers to net-zero: How firms can make or break the green transition

Many countries are striving for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, requiring massive investments over the next decades. But many companies, especially smaller ones, will not be able or willing to invest in cleaner techno... Read more...

Ralph De Haas, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Helena Schweiger

19 March 2021

CEP discussion papers

Does pricing carbon mitigate climate change? Firm-level evidence from the European Union emissions trading scheme

In theory, market-based regulatory instruments correct market failures at least cost. However, evidence on their efficacy remains scarce. Using administrative data, we estimate that, on average, the EU ETS - the world's ... Read more...

Jonathan Colmer, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner

17 November 2020

CEP discussion papers

Making smart meters smarter the smart way

We report first results from a large scale randomized control trial of different forms of energy consumption feedback facilitated by smart meters and smart phone feedback apps. Nearly 40,000 customers of a large energy r... Read more...

Quentin Coutellier, Greer Gosnell, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls, Goran Strbac, Mingyang Sun and Simon Tindermans

11 February 2019

CEP discussion papers

Searching for carbon leaks in multinational companies

Does unilateral climate change policy cause companies to shift the location of production, thereby creating carbon leakage? In this paper, we analyse the effect of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on ... Read more...

Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Caterina Gennaioli, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Thomas Stoerk

11 February 2019

Journal article

Competition and norms: a self-defeating combination?

This paper investigates the effects of information feedback mechanisms on electricity and heating usage at a student hall of residence in London. In a randomised control trial, we formulate different treatments such as f... Read more...

Genevieve Alberts, Zeynep Gurguc, Pantelis Koutroumpis, Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Tamaryn Napp

01 September 2016

CEP discussion papers

Unraveling firms: demand, productivity and markups heterogeneity

Emanuele Forlani, Ralf Martin, Giordano Mion and Mirabelle Muûls

19 January 2016

Journal article

The impact of the European Union emissions trading scheme on regulated firms: What is the evidence after ten years?

This article reviews the recent literature on ex post evaluation of the impacts of the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) on regulated firms in the industrial and power sectors. We summarize the findings ... Read more...

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner

01 January 2016

Journal article

Industry compensation under relocation risk: a firm-level analysis of the EU emissions trading scheme

When regulated firms are offered compensation to prevent them from relocating, efficiency requires that payments be distributed across firms so as to equalize marginal relocation probabilities, weighted by the damage cau... Read more...

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux

01 August 2014

CEP discussion papers

Exporters, Importers and Credit Constraints

This paper analyses the interaction between credit constraints and trading behaviour. I construct a unique dataset containing firm-level trade transactions data, balance sheets and credit scores from an independent credi... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls

08 October 2012

CEP discussion papers

Industry Compensation Under Relocation Risk: A Firm-Level Analysis of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

When industry compensation is offered to prevent relocation of regulated firms, efficiency requires that payments be distributed across firms so as to equalize marginal relocation probabilities, weighted by the damage ca... Read more...

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux

14 June 2012

CEP occasional papers

Climate change policy and business in Europe. Evidence from interviewing managers

This report presents new evidence relating to the effects of climate policy in Europe, particularly the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The evidence is based on new data from almost 800 phone interviews... Read more...

Barry Anderson, Jorg Leib, Ralf Martin, Martin McGuigan, Mirabelle Muûls, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux

22 March 2011

CEP discussion papers

Anatomy of a Paradox: Management Practices, Organisational Structure and Energy Efficiency

This paper presents new evidence on managerial and organizational factors that explain firm level energy efficiency and TFP. We interviewed managers of 190 randomly selected manufacturing plants in the UK and matched the... Read more...

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls, Ulrich J. Wagner and Laure B. de Preux

01 December 2010

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

Europe's emissions trading scheme: taxpayers versus sthe industry lobby

The European Commission plans to tighten the greenhouse gas emissions targets in the Emissions Trading System. Ralf Martin and colleagues examine the likely impact on affected businesses, and conclude that industry is ex... Read more...

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner

12 July 2010

Policy analysis papers

Still time to reclaim the European Union Emissions Trading System for the European tax payer

The criteria proposed by the EU Commission to identify industries that will receive free emission permits in the third phase of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) are not restrictive enough. Evidence fr... Read more...

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls and Ulrich J. Wagner

01 May 2010

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

Do swing states influence US trade policy?

As the US election campaign nears its climax, Mirabelle Muûls and Dimitra Petropoulou find that industries in battleground states are more likely to be protected.... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls and Dimitra Petropoulou

01 October 2008

CEP discussion papers

A Swing-State Theory of Trade Protection in the Electoral College

This paper develops an infinite-horizon, political agency model with a continuum of political districts, in which incumbent politicians can improve their re-election probability by attracting swing voters in key states t... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls and Dimitra Petropoulou

01 February 2008

CEP discussion papers

Imports and Exports at the Level of the Firm: Evidence from Belgium

This paper explores a newly-available panel data set merging balance sheet and international trade transaction data for Belgium. Both imports and exports appear to be highly concentrated among few firms and seem to have ... Read more...

Mirabelle Muûls and Mauro Pisu

01 June 2007