Enviromental Economics, Energy Economics, Sustainability and Development

This area of research focuses on the environmental sustainability of economic activities and environmental policies, the economic aspects of a rational management of urban and rural areas, the impact of renewable energy on the economic context and the rational exploitation of exhaustible and renewable natural resources. Some examples of topics covered in this research area include: the design of environmental policy instruments such as the payments for environmental services; the provision of local public goods and services, and their impact on quality of life, "resilience" and social cohesion at the urban level; the relationship between renewable energy, growth and imports; the study of the economic convenience of the introduction of electricity storage instruments to level out the production peaks deriving from the development of alternative energy sources; the evaluation of non-market assets, environmental damage and the benefits of environmental programmes in terms of ecological and biological risk reduction linked to human health; the effects of climate change on human behaviour and productivity in the agriculture sector both in developed and developing countries; waste management: that is the study of the effect of different methods of collection and pricing of the service on the disposal of solid urban waste; the drafting of environmental budgets.