Management and Economics of Resources and the Environment

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The Management and Economics of Resources and the Environment (MERE) group researches topics in environmental and natural resource economics. The group puts specific emphasis on economic uses of the interlinked biosphere and biophysical systems. Applications focus on ecosystem conservation and use; marine resource use and conservation; energy transitions; climate regulation; and intersections of technology, trade and development relating to these issues. 

These are all components in the broad societal drive for sustainable development. We use economic tools to untangle the web of interacting, multidimensional environmental and resource risks, needs and impacts on ecosystems and ecosystem services from human activity (incentives, history) and its organization in the forms of its institutions, norms, and regulations.

Research methods

Analyses of environmental and resource problems involve considerable theoretical challenges and complex causal relationships, including lack of property rights, many conflicting stakeholder interests, and risk and uncertainty. We apply economic theory and tools to policy and analysis to provide guidance for more efficient use of environmental and natural resource goods and services.

In particular, the following economic tools and theoretical bases are widely used by MERE group members: bio-economics, game theory, growth models and other applications of dynamic optimization, models of technical change, theory of market failures, public choice, risk analysis, property rights, spatial models, econometrics, cost-benefit analysis, and uncertainty.

Interdisciplinary research is de rigueur. Bio-economics and spatial models directly require interactions with other disciplines, particularly biology and ecology. Parameterization of environmental and resource models relies on interdisciplinary work from e.g. ecology, biology, history, or law. Further, the public good nature of the environment and natural resources means that most such goods and services are to some extent managed or provided by public managers. These may be at multiple scales, ranging from local to international decision-makers. The development of a back-and-forth with such managers and policy-setters is a key component of simultaneously well-informed and highly-demanded research and effective dissemination.

Read more on the research groups webpage: https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/forskningsenheder/samf/mere/about_mere

Head of Research Group

Associate Professor Julia Bronnmann

Group members