Research

Research interests
My research interests concern the linkages between agriculture and the environment and related policy issues, mainly from a macroeconomic perspective. I also have a general interest in global land use issues.

My doctoral project consists of three papers: In the first paper, we apply index decomposition methods to decompose nitrogen and phosphorus leakage trends from Swedish arable land. In the second paper, we develop a two-country Ricardian GE trade model with global pollution, in which one good is dirtier than the others, and show that when one of the countries has both a higher WTP for environmental quality and intrinsically cleaner production of the dirtiest good, there may be a role for strategic environmental policy to crowd out even dirtier production in the low-WTP country. We test this proposition by calibrating the model to trade in crops, a manufacturing good, and beef between the EU and South America. In the third paper, I use a quantitative North-South trade model to study the effect on agricultural land allocated to feed vs. consumption crops, and welfare, due to changed preferences for meat in the global North.

I also work on the interdisciplinary project WaterPlan, aiming to enable well-informed analyses and prioritised measures for protecting drinking water sources as part of future urban development.

Work in progress
Wahtra, J. and Johnsson, H. (2024). Why is the decline in pollution from agriculture so slow? Evidence from Sweden. [Under review.]

Söderqvist, T., Wahtra, J., Nordzell, H., Hasselström, L., Gärtner, N., Lång, L-O., Norrman, J., Rosén, L. and Lindhe, A. (2024). Households’ preferences to avoid disturbances in municipal drinking water supply: A nationwide contingent valuation study in Sweden. [Under review.]

Wahtra, J. and Hart, R. (2024). Environmental comparative advantage and strategic trade. [Working paper.]

Wahtra, J. (2024). Changing preferences for meat: implications for global land use and welfare. [Working paper.]