The year at CERE starts off very international: We are happy to welcome PhD students Nishtman, Faniel and Mahboobeh as guest researchers to Umeå.
As of January 2017 CERE member Dr Camilla Widmark, a senior researcher and vice head of the Department of Forest Economics at SLU in Umeå, has been appointed as Head of Office for EFINORD, the northern regional office of the European Forest Institute.
Deregulation and technological advancement have provided the possibilities and the larger share of intermittent power the need for demand flexibility. Policy makers hope that households will be interested in demand flexibility and change their ways. However, if the incentives for behavioural change are too small, the households will fail to respond.
Dr. Mattias Vesterberg successfully defended his thesis: Power to the people - Electricity demand and household behaviour, on February 24, 2017. Mattias partly focused on real time pricing of electricity, trying to figure out the potential for dynamic pricing to increase demand flexibility on the Swedish electricity market. Using unique Swedish household level data, his research sheds light on the extent to which price-driven policies can incentivize behavioural changes in residential electricity consumption. While technologies and market structures already allow many consumers to adjust their consumption according to electricity availability, only few actively do so. Ingrained consumer patterns are difficult to change and the gains from switching to flexible electricity contracts seem too small.
The subject area is economics, applied to forest-related problems in a wider sense.
A position as Professor of economics (Chair) is vacant at the Department of Forest Economics, Forest Faculty, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden. The incumbent will be expected to develop an internationally as well as nationally recognized research program, focused on applying economics to forest-related problems. Potential research areas could include, but are not limited to: economics of forestry and climate change policy, biodiversity; forest management and landscapes; ecosystem services; bio economy; understanding forest owners and their behavior; forest products and sector modelling, international trade and economics of forest management. The successful applicant will build upon current strength at the department and CERE (Centre of Environmental and Resource Economics), as well as existing collaborations with other research institutions around the world. The professor will actively teach and develop courses and teaching methods at bachelor, master and graduate levels. More specifically, SLU is responsible for the Master of Forestry (5 year) program at SLU, the only program in Sweden.
Read more: New position out
In January 2017, the Sören Wibe prize was awarded jointly to Michael Hoel, Bjart Holtsmark, and Katinka Holtsmark for their article, Faustmann and the Climate, Journal of Forest Economics, 2014, 20(2): 192-210.
Läs mer om kursen ”Productivity and efficiency analysis with focus on modeling a pollution generating technology, 7,5 ETCS credits” som gick av stapeln 5-9 december 2016. Kursen kommer även gå 2017. (Endast på engelska)
Fem fiskefria områden inrättades åren 2009-2011, tre på den svenska västkusten och två på ostkusten. Dessa områden har senare utvärderats och både de biologiska och samhällsekonomiska effekterna av de fiskefria områden har analyserats av Havs och vattenmyndigheten. CERE genomförde en analys av de samhällsekonomiska effekterna som visade att fiskefria områden kan öka värdet både för fiske och andra ekosystemtjänster som förbättrad vattenkvalitet, bättre naturupplevelser eller reglering av främmande arter.
Den CERE kände Oben Bayrak som disputerade i våras har erhållit ett stipendium från Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse samt Tore Browaldhs stiftelse. Stipendiet ger Oben möjlighet att forska på heltid under tre år. Han återvänder till CERE i början av 2017.
Välkommen tillbaka!
