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Energy Economics (through the Industrial Graduate School for Research & Innovation) |
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(Ref nr 313-414-12)
Project description
The overall aim of the PhD project is to gain a deeper understanding of the functioning of the electricity and heat markets and how various policy decisions after the deregulation in 1996 have affected (1) market prices and investment in electricity and heat production, (2) consumers' energy consumption choices, and (3) the environmental impacts from the energy sector. Of particular interest in the project is to analyze the impact of national and international climate and energy policy. In this respect specific focus will be on (a) how various policy instruments, and the uncertainty of how they will evolve over time, affects firms investment decisions, and (b) how various policy measures affect attitudes of consumers, thus changing consumer choices that ultimately may favour specific types of energy production.
Desired Background and Skills
The position requires a master degree in economics or other related, quantitative fields. The PhD candidate will work in a larger research environment specialized in different aspects of environmental and resource economics. The research group consists of researchers in economics, environmental economics and economic history. We expect excellent oral and written communication skills in English and the ability to work independently as well as in collaboration with others. Documented analytical skills and documented knowledge or practical experience of using advanced methods in econometrics and numerical modelling is highly desirable.
Click for application details, and/or e-mail Prof. Runar Brannlund |
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Climate Change Economics and Integrated Assessment Modelling |
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(Ref nr 313-413-12)
Project Description
Integrated Assessment models (IAMs) have become prominent in aiding the understanding of, and helping formulate, climate change policies. IAMs provide a unique applied framework in which to study the costs and benefits of energy use, energy use being the foremost contributor to CO2 emissions and hence anthropogenic climate change. IAMs combine knowledge from different disciplines such as economics and atmospheric and oceanic sciences to understand the full cause and effect chain of climate change. IAMs, which have improved over the years, still have substantial lacunae that should be remedied.
This project aims at addressing three important lacunae in such models: the estimation (and treatment) of damages, treatment of uncertainty and incorporating adaptation. The aim will be to develop a state-of-the-art model, incorporating cutting-edge research pertinent to these issues, to provide a truly stochastic IAM, capable of providing guidance to policy in a rigorous manner.
Desired Background and Skills
The position requires a master degree in economics or other related, quantitative fields, as well as an openness to engage in the entire rubric of issues related to climate change economics and policy. Personal qualities such as ability to collaborate, high degree of self-motivation and enthusiasm will be considered. We expect excellent oral and written communication skills in English and the ability to work independently as well as in collaboration with others.
The project calls for a variety of skills; in particular, given the integrative nature of the Assessment Modeling literature, important skills will include: basic understanding of the economics of climate change (eg. issues related to discounting and treatment of uncertainty), in addition to knowledge of traditional topics in environmental economics (cost-benefit analysis, in particular), some experience with programming (eg. higher level packages such as Matlab or lower level ones such as C,C++, Fortran, Java or even GAMS) and some degree of mathematical maturity. In addition, an ability to read papers relevant to IAM's in climate journals would be preferable.
Most important, however, is an interest in modeling, and an ability to integrate information and knowledge from disparate sources and fields.
Click for application details: and/or e-mail Prof. Runar Brannlund |
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1 PhD student in Economics Specifically in "green energy" demand and consumer choice |
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We are looking for a PhD candidate with the ability to do high-quality research on "green energy demand and consumer choice. The overall aim of the PhD project is to understand how consumers make choices and what factors that drives peoples preferences. This is vital for designing policies that are effective, acceptable, and feasible.
The focus of this project is on household preferences concerning energy sources and demand for energy, both for electricity and transportation. Preferences may be both time variant, as well as context variant. That is, over time consumer preferences may change as a result of changes in social
norms through the whole society. The research here will focus on changes in consumer choice both over time and between different types of consumers by adopting two different approaches on energy demand. In particular, two issues will be investigated: 1. preference stability and the value of 'green energy" in a multi-country setting 2. preference heterogeneity and the value of "green energy" in
a multi-country setting The data-analysis will be based on two substantial surveys organized and developed by the OECD in 2008 and 2011. In addressing both questions, there are econometric challenges, and one aim of this project is to develop/adapt methods to address these challenges.
The PhD candidate will work in a larger research environment specialized in different aspects of environmental and resource economics. The research group consists of researchers in economics, environmental economics and economic history. The candidate will be linked to the Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics (www.cere.se) with currently approximately 30 researchers employed by Umeå University or the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The Centre is hosted at the department of economics, Umeå School of Business and Economics, Umeå University (www.econ.umu.se).
We look forward to receiving your application!
 Read more and apply |
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1 PhD student in Economics: specifically in Environmental and Energy Economics |
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We are looking for a PhD candidate with the ability to do high-quality research on energy issues. The overall aim of the PhD project is to gain a deeper understanding of the functioning of energy markets and how various policy decisions have affected energy supply.
The PhD candidate will work in a larger research environment specialized in different aspects of environmental and resource economics. The research group consists of researchers in economics, environmental economics and economic history. The candidate will be linked to the Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics (www.cere.se) with currently approximately 25 researchers employed by Umeå University or the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The Centre is hosted at the department of economics, Umeå School of Business and Economics, Umeå University (www.econ.umu.se).
We look forward to receiving your application!
Read more and apply
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