Lucas BretschgerCurrent position: Professor of Economics at ETH Zurich Year of birth: 1958 Homepage: http://www.resec.ethz.ch/people/person-detail.html?persid=110065 IDEAS profile: https://ideas.repec.org/e/pbr145.html |
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Anil Markandya
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I am very happy to present Anil Markandya in the Meet Top Environmental Economist series. He is currently the Distinguished Ikerbasque Professor and Scientific Director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change, Bilbao, in Spain (since 2008), was the Director of Sustainable Indicators and Environmental Valuation and Applied Research at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Milan, Italy (2005-2008); lead economist at the World Bank (2000-2004); and held various positions at top universities (University of Bath, London School of Economics, Harvard University, Berkeley, Princeton).
Anil Markandya is a researcher who has been working all of his life on the interaction between (mostly applied) environmental economics and policy advise. In terms of research he has published more than 290 scientific articles and several books, among which the `Blueprint for a Green Economy‘, co-authored with Edward Barbier (and the first version with the late David Pearce), certainly stands out. In this book the authors were among the first to take a serious step towards understanding how economic growth and environmental constraints should be approached together to achieve a green economy. He has also been extremely influential on the policy side and has been an advisor or consultant for nearly all major world institutions (like the OECD, World Bank, IPCC, FAO, UN, European Environmental Agency) and countries. Anil Markandya has also been a lead author on influential IPCC reports (WG3, 3rd and 4th AR, and WG2 on 5th AR).
This is clearly an impressive record that one can only achieve with a level of dedication and effort which only a selected few have. Thus I am grateful that Anil Markandya took some time off for this interview and kindly answered these questions. I hope you enjoy this interview and if you do then do not hesitate to let me know!
Partha Dasgupta
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It is my great honor to present Partha Dasgupta in the #MeetTopEnvEcon series. I had previously met Partha only briefly at various conferences, and thus it was a pleasure to talk to him more extensively during the Climate Ethics and Climate Economics: Discounting the Future conference in Oxford this year. Once you discuss with him you easily understand why it was he who pioneered the nexus on environment, development and economics; his works with Geoffrey Heal on the optimal extraction of non-renewables are the foundation stone for any resource economist these days; together with the likes of Kenneth Arrow he urges governments to cease regarding GDP as a measure of prosperity to more holistic measures like inclusive wealth; and he is one of only a handful of economists who dares to address the problem of the optimal population size.
During the years, Partha published more than 270 scientific articles and books like An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution, Economic Theory and Exhaustible Resources, or the beautiful little Economics: A Very Short Introduction. For these contributions he was awarded a wealth of honors and awards, from several honorary doctor titles over to fellowships in the most prestigious societies, and was furthermore bestowed the knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002. These honors are clearly well-deserved.
One meets few people in life that quickly leave a lasting impression, and I feel that Partha is one of them. Not only because of his vast knowledge that he readily shares and his quick wit, but also because of his character. I have found him to be extremely kind, modest and down-to-earth, which tend to be character traits that too often disappear quickly in most people that reach Partha’s standing. Not so with Partha, which makes it that much more enjoyable to discuss with him.
Finally, I would like to deeply thank Partha for investing such an extensive amount of time on the interview. I hope the readers will appreciate the insights gained here.
Cees Withagen
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I do not even remember where I met Cees for the first time. I think he has simply always been there. Trying to find an environmental economics conference without Cees is like trying to find a fox with rabies: while it is difficult, yet not impossible, it is not really desirable. This is simply because Cees is a warm and fun guy, he talks to PhD students just like he would talk to well-known professors, and he shows genuine interest in everyone’s work.
His big passion is mathematical modelling of environmental and resource problems in economics, and without doubt one can say that he is among the best out there. A word that may describe his style of research is most probably: thorough. I believe his second big passion is Tango, but there you have to ask him for the details…
His recent work is mostly about the Green Paradox, and together with Rick van der Ploeg they are the currently most ambitious tag team on this topic.
Cees is going into retirement in 2016. But be warned: retirement for an academic like Cees means no teaching obligations and the possibility of being back to full time research. This is the period in life where academics become even more productive, and I thus expect to see Cees at more conferences and to publish more papers than ever before!
Reyer Gerlagh
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In 1999 Reyer Gerlagh received his PhD in economics. His research won him a prestigious scholarship, the “Vernieuwingsimpuls”, a grant of € 650,000 by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). He visited Oslo, January-June 2006, by invitation from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters to work at the Centre of Advanced Studies on the interaction between environmental policy and technology. From 2006 to 2009, he held a chair in Environmental Economics at Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. Reyer Gerlagh is now Professor at Tilburg University, associate editor of ERE and Energy Economics, and coordinating lead author of the fifth assessment report of the IPCC, WG III. He has published many articles on climate change policy, technological change, sustainability, natural resources, and the green paradox.
I am starting a new interview series on this blog called Meet Top Environmental Economists, #MeetTopEnvEcon. The idea is to introduce some of the most influential economists that have significantly contributed to environmental economics. I am not going to make a difference here between those working on ecological economics, or urban environmental economics, or similar, but I will simply look at all those economists who have spent a significant part of their research agenda on using economic tools to research issues related to the environment.
From this you, the reader, should get away a couple of points: What motivated this researcher to work on this topic? What does (s)he view as the major contributions? Where should the literature go from here? The idea is to introduce these top researchers also from a more personal side, a side that one seldomly gets to know if one only reads their articles. In addition, the references accumulated here will help to develop a smaller living library that should aid researchers.
In terms of contributors there is no particular order, first come first served really. I will not necessarily follow particular rankings, like those from ideas, since for example policy-oriented researchers often have a difficult time to enter those rankings. If you are not happy with the selections, or you would like to see others ranked, let me know!
The first favourite environmental economist is Rick van der Ploeg. I got to know Rick when he taught the macroeconomics course for us MSc Economics students at the London School of Economics in early 2003. This was a really enjoyable course: while he was sticking to the textbook, at the same time his mind was racing ahead and he provided us with anecdotes about his time as a politician, about when economics matters for public finance and education, and he always helped us to see where exactly the elephant in the room was standing. Rick is someone who knows the theory by heart and has enough experience in the public sector to actually know where it matters. His recent work is mostly about optimal carbon taxes, the green paradox, and the optimal switch from non-renewable to renewable resources.
Rick van der Ploeg
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He is a research fellow in international macroeconomics at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He directs the public sector economics programme, and is Chair of the Scientific Council of CESifo.
He is former Chief Financial Spokesperson in the Dutch Parliament, State Secretary of Education, Science and Culture of the Netherlands and Elected Member of the Unesco World Heritage Committee, and has been on the board of various commercial and non-profit organisations. Previous academic experience includes Cambridge, LSE, Tilburg and Amsterdam.
He has published extensively on macroeconomics, public finance, political economy and resource economics, and also has an interest in the economics of culture. Publications include Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics with B.J. Heijdra (OUP, 2002), the edited Handbook of International Macroeconomics, and several other books.
