Environmental Economics

Overcoming the problem of externalities is a fundamental challenge for both private and public organizations. Environmental economics is primarily concerned with identifying and measuring environmental externalities, proposing conceptual solutions, suggesting implementable policies, and finally evaluating the performance of the policies in place. The lessons vary across institutional settings and depend on domain knowledge ranging from climate change to more local fisheries or ground-water management problems. But the lessons have in common that they are all derived from the same conceptual framework. Because environmental policies are being rolled out widely in the society, the applied work of the group covers a large number of sectors: transportation, electricity, housing, energy commodity markets, forest industry, and, for example, industries affected by the European emissions trading. The group is also strong in resource economics that is concerned with privately owned resources and their optimal use over time.

The group organizes a bi-weekly seminar series on timely topics in environmental economics. The series includes local and foreign researchers from the research frontier presenting their empirical and theoretical papers related to environment and natural resource economics. See "Upcoming events" for information about the forthcoming seminars. Please contact Lassi Ahlvik or Anna Sahari for more information.

The aim of the reading group is to read empirical papers related to your ongoing or planned research topics. The reading group sessions are intended to be as informal as possible. In each session there is a chair person who chooses the paper, initiates the discussion and takes care of the timetable. No presentations are needed. Please contact Kimmo Ollikka for more information.

The group organizes also an annual workshop primarily meant to support PhD students in their on-going research. Contact Pauli Lappi for more information.

For Master's students interested in these topics, here is a list of recommended courses.