Research
Ongoing research projects
In recent years I have been co-directing two major research projects in Environmental Economics which are now coming to fruition:
GREEN NET NATIONAL ACCOUNTING IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
The purpose of this project is to develop a measure of Denmark's Green Net National Income (GNNI) and to estimate its evolution over time. This will be done by adjusting the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded in the National Accounts for the value of the environmental and ecosystem services consumed by Danish residents over the year and for the change in the value of the stocks of Denmark's exhaustible and renewable resources, stocks of pollution, and other forms of natural capital. These adjustments of the conventional GDP will highlight the importance of environmental goods and services for the welfare of Danish citizens and indicate whether Danish economic growth takes place at the expense of the environment. The project involves collaboration with Copenhagen University's Department of Food and Resource Economics, the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy at Aarhus University and Statistics Denmark's department for Green National Accounts. The project will be documented in in a forthcoming book volume on Routledge edited by me with the title: Green National Accounting in Theory and Practice - From GDP to the Green GDP.
THE GREEN REFORM MODEL: A Model of the Interaction of the Environment and the Danish Economy
In collaboration with Head of Research Peter Stephensen and Project Director Jens Sand Kirk from the DREAM modelling group, I am co-directing the ongoing work to develop the GREEN REFORM model which is a large scale computable general equilibrium model of the Danish economy designed to simulate the environmental effects of Danish economic activity and the economic effects of policy interventions to meet the targets for Danish environmental, energy and climate policy. The GREEN REFORM model has been praised by the OECD as an example for other countries to follow (oecd_introductory-note-integrating-climate-into-macroeconomic-modelling). The GREEN REFORM modelling project involves a large number of collaborators; more information on the project can be found here: https://dreamgroup.dk/greenreform/
Recent working papers in English
A theoretical framework for estimating the Green Net National Income in a small open economy. Department of Economics, April 2022.
Optimal unilateral climate policy with carbon leakage at the extensive and the intensive margin (with Peter Kjær Kruse-Andersen). CESifo Working Paper No. 9185, 2021. (Revised version forthcoming in the Scandinavian Journal of Economics).
The basic environmental economics of the circular economy. EPRU Working Paper Series 2017-04, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen.
Recent working papers in Danish
Klimaregulering af landbruget: Afgift versus tilskud. Økonomisk Institut, Københavns Universitet, juni 2024.
Recent publications in Environmental Economics
National climate targets under ambitious EU climate policy (with Frederik Silbye). Nordic Economic Policy Review 2023 (https://pub.norden.org/nord2023-001/national-climate-targets-under-ambitious-eu-climate-policy.html).
Optimal climate policy in EU frontrunner countries: coordinating with the EU ETS and addressing leakage (with Peter Kjær Kruse-Andersen). Climate Policy, November 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2022.2145259).
Optimal energy taxes and subsidies under a cost-effective unilateral climate policy: Addressing carbon leakage (with Peter Kjær Kruse-Andersen). Energy Economics 109 (2022) 105928.
Barriers and opportunities in developing and implementing a Green GDP (with Jens Hoff and Martin Rasmussen). Ecological Economics 181 (2021) 106905.
Danish climate policy: Past achievements and future challenges. Ch. 15 in F. Caselli, A. Ludwig, and R. van der Ploeg (eds.), No-Brainers and Low-Hanging Fruit in National Climate Policy, CEPR Press, 2021.
Environment, energy, and climate policy: From energy supply to climate gases. Ch. 39 in P. Munk Christiansen, J. Elklit & P. Nedergaard (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Danish Politics, Oxford University Press, 2020.
National climate policies and the European Emissions Trading System (with Frederik Silbye). Nordic Economic Policy Review 2019, 63-101.
From the linear to the circular economy: A basic model. Public Finance Analysis 74 (2018), 71-87.
Selected recent publications in other fields
The interaction of actual and fundamental house prices: A general model with an application to Sweden (with U. Michael Bergman). Journal of Housing Economics 54, 101792, 2021.
Taxation and the optimal constraint on debt finance: why a comprehensive business income tax is suboptimal. International Tax and Public Finance 24, 731-753, 2017.
Measuring the deadweight loss from taxation in a small open economy: A general method with an application to Sweden. Journal of Public Economics 117, 115-124, 2014.
Efficient redistribution of lifetime income through welfare accounts. Fiscal Studies 33, 1-37, 2012 (with A. Lans Bovenberg and Martin Ino Hansen).
Optimal social insurance with linear income taxation. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 111, 251-275, 2009 (with A. Lans Bovenberg).
The effects of tax competition when politicians create rents to buy political support. Journal of Public Economics 92, 1142-1163, 2008 (with Wolfgang Eggert).
Neutral taxation of shareholder income. International Tax and Public Finance, 12, 2005.
International tax coordination - regionalism versus globalism. Journal of Public Economics, 88, 2004.
Improving the Equity-Efficiency Trade-Off: Mandatory Savings Accounts for Social Insurance. International Tax and Public Finance, 11, 2004 (with A. Lans Bovenberg).
Labour tax reform, the good jobs and the bad jobs. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 106, 2004 (with Henrik Kleven).
Optimal taxation with household production, Oxford Economic Papers, 52, 2000 (with Henrik Kleven and Wolfram F. Richter).
The case for international tax coordination reconsidered, Economic Policy, no. 31, October 2000.