Proxy voting for the Earth System: Institutional shareholder governance of global tipping elements

Golland, A., V. Galaz, G. Engstrom, and J. Fichtner. 2022. Proxy voting for the Earth System: Institutional shareholder governance of global tipping elements. SSRN Electronic Journal .

Global “tipping elements” such as large forest biomes are critical for climate stability, and are key resource pools for extractive industries – typically, forestry and farming. In recent years the largest global asset managers have begun promoting sustainability policies among their portfolio companies, while evidence suggests that financial institutions can influence change in forest biomes through shareholdings. We explore this potential by studying proxy voting...

What Policies Address Both the Coronavirus Crisis and the Climate Crisis?

Engström, G. J. Gars, N. Jaakkola, T. Lindahl, D. Spiro and A. van Benthem. 2020. What Policies Address Both the Coronavirus Crisis and the Climate Crisis?. Environmental and Resource Economics volume 76:789–810.

The coronavirus pandemic has led many countries to initiate unprecedented economic recovery packages. Policymakers tackling the coronavirus crisis have also been encouraged to prioritize policies which help mitigate a second, looming crisis: climate change. We identify and analyze policies that combat both the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis. We analyze both the long-run climate impacts from coronavirus-related economic recovery policies, and the impacts of...

Carbon pricing and planetary boundaries

Engström G., J. Gars, C. K. Krishnamurthy, D. Spiro, R. Calel, T. Lindahl and B. Narayanan. 2020. Carbon pricing and planetary boundaries. Nature Communications 11(4688).

Human activities are threatening to push the Earth system beyond its planetary boundaries, risking catastrophic and irreversible global environmental change. Action is urgently needed, yet well-intentioned policies designed to reduce pressure on a single boundary can lead, through economic linkages, to aggravation of other pressures. In particular, the potential policy spillovers from an increase in the global carbon price onto other critical Earth system processes...

Valuing biodiversity and resilience: An application to pollinator diversity in the Stockholm region

Engström, G., Å. Gren, C.Z. Li, and C. Kiran. 2020. Valuing biodiversity and resilience: An application to pollinator diversity in the Stockholm region. Spatial Economic Analysis 15(3):238-261.

This paper characterizes the value of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience by formalizing a stochastic dynamic bioeconomic model of pollinator diversity under climate changes, with an application to oil rapeseed production in the Stockholm region of Sweden. It studies the optimal provision of semi-natural habitat for two different pollinator bee species: bumble bees and solitary wild bees. It is found that, despite being less effective, solitary...

What policies address both the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis?

Engström, G. J. Gars, N. Jaakkola, T. Lindahl, D. Spiro and A. van Benthem. 2020. Beijer Discussion Paper 271: What policies address both the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis?. Beijer Discussion Paper Series.

The coronavirus pandemic has led many countries to initiate unprecedented economic recovery packages. There have been widespread calls to prioritize dealing with a second, looming crisis—climate change—when designing these economic stimulus packages. In this paper we identify policies that promote both goals simultaneously. We analyze both the long-run climate impacts from coronavirus-related economic recovery policies, and the impacts of long-run climate policies on economic recovery...

Valuing individual characteristics and the multifunctionality of urban green spaces: The integration of sociotope mapping and hedonic pricing

Czembrowski, P., E. Łaszkiewicz, J.Kronenberg, G. Engström, and E. Andersson. 2019. Valuing individual characteristics and the multifunctionality of urban green spaces: The integration of sociotope mapping and hedonic pricing. PloS one 14 (3): e0212277.

We categorize Stockholm’s urban green spaces according to the use values and social meanings they support, based on a sociotope mapping, and estimate their impact on property prices with a hedonic pricing model. The approach allows us to identify the most and least desired green space characteristics (attributes) and to assess the willingness to pay for the multifunctionality of green spaces. To do this, we...

Policy design for the Anthropocene

Sterner, T., E. B. Barbier, I. Bateman, I. van den Bijgaart, A-S. Crépin, O. Edenhofer, C. Fischer, W. Habla, J. Hassler, O. Johansson-Stenman, A. Lange, S. Polasky, J. Rockström, H. G. Smith, W. Steffen, G. Wagner, J. E. Wilen, F. Alpízar, C. Azar, D. Carless,C. Chávez, J. Coria, G. Engström, S. C. Jagers, G. Köhlin, Å. Löfgren, H. Pleijel and A. Robinson. 2019. Policy design for the Anthropocene. Nature Sustainability 2:14–21.

Today, more than ever, ‘Spaceship Earth’ is an apt metaphor as we chart the boundaries for a safe planet1. Social scientists both analyse why society courts disaster by approaching or even overstepping these boundaries and try to design suitable policies to avoid these perils. Because the threats of transgressing planetary boundaries are global, long-run, uncertain and interconnected, they must be analysed together to avoid conflicts...

Construction of register-based commuting measures

Blind. I., M. Dahlberg, G. Engström and J. Östh. 2018. Construction of register-based commuting measures. CESifo Economic Studies 64(2):292-326.

Early empirical studies in labour and urban economics addressing the role of commuting (on, e.g., wages and locational choice) have typically been confined to the use of survey data. Researchers are, however, increasingly getting access to large register databases with detailed information on where individuals live and work. A variety of methods have thus emerged to exploit the geocoded characteristic of the data to calculate...

The Unintended Consequences of a Global Carbon Tax

Engström., G, J. Gars, C.K.. Krishnamurthy, R. Calel, T. Lindahl, B.G. Narayanan, and D. Spiro. 2018. Beijer Discussion Paper 261: The Unintended Consequences of a Global Carbon Tax. Beijer Discussion Paper Series.

Operationalising a social–ecological system perspective on the Arctic Ocean

Crépin, A.-C., Å. Gren, G. Engström and D. Ospina. 2017. Operationalising a social–ecological system perspective on the Arctic Ocean. Ambio 46:S475–S485.

We propose a framework to support management that builds on a social–ecological system perspective on the Arctic Ocean. We illustrate the framework’s application for two policy-relevant scenarios of climate-driven change, picturing a shift in zooplankton composition and alternatively a crab invasion. We analyse archetypical system dynamics between the socioeconomic, the natural, and the governance systems in these scenarios. Our holistic approach can help managers identify...