The specific goals of the research programme are to:
- Develop theory and methods for applying cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to problems involving the husbandry of our natural environments and resources.
- Structure a set of empirical studies that illustrate a broad range of issues, including resource dynamics, uncertainty, monetary and non-monetary valuation, distributional issues.
- Use the tools developed to shed light on the costs and benefits of reaching the current Swedish environmental policy targets.
- Effectively integrate findings into a strong outreach programme, involving key stakeholders in the government sector.
The increasing demand for suitable assessment tools to assess environmental objectives, new environmental policies and policy instruments requires a further development of cost-benefit analysis (CBA). All the more, there exists a gap between theory and practice. This program will attempt to fill part of this gap by extending current theories and empirical methods of CBA, within a carefully structured approach to disseminate research into practical application.
The programme focuses on the following research areas:
- Cost-benefit analysis and decision-making, ecosystem services, benefit transfers, recourse equivalence methods, distributional issues, uncertainty, resource dynamics, goal conflicts and policy instruments.
- The programme will be dominated by applied environmental (welfare) economists that have considerable experience in co-operating with natural scientists. Close cooperation with natural scientists is required for the programme to be successful, and ecologists are therefore included as partners.
Contacts
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Bengt Kriström, programme manager
Phone: +46 (0)90 789 8448
E-mail: bengt.kristrom@sekon.slu.se
Swedish EPA
Martin Gustafsson
Phone: +46 (0)10 698 1637
E-mail: martin.gustafsson@swedishepa.se