ICREA Research Professor, Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). Honorary Professor of Environmental & Resource Economics, School of Economics & Business and Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA). Head research group 'Environmental & Climate Economics' at ICTA-UAB. Previously Professor of Environmental Economics (1997-2007) at VUA, and editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Innovation & Societal Transitions (2011-2021). He holds a Master degree in Econometrics & Operations Research from Tilburg University, and a PhD from VUA. He was awarded the Shell Sustainability Research Prize 2002, IEC's ("Sant Jordi") Environmental Prize 2011, two ERC Advanced Grants (2017 & 2023), and an honorary doctorate from the Netherlands’ Open University (2019).
Research interests
He works on the interface of environmental economics, climate-policy research, and innovation studies. Research in recent years focuses on effectiveness and public support of climate policy. This accounts for undesirable systemic impacts, such as energy rebound and carbon leakage, and the role of dynamic climate clubs of countries. It makes use of methods and insights from behavioural and evolutionary economics, operationalized through agent-based modelling, questionnaire surveys and online experiments. Past work covered integrated ecological-economic modelling, contributions to the growth-versus-environment debate, environmental policies applied to urban-transport issues, biodiversity valuation and policy, circular economy and recycling, and international aspects of environmental policy.
Selected publications
- van den Bergh JCJM & Botzen WWJ 2024, 'Assessing Criticisms of Carbon Pricing', International review of environmental and resource economics 18(3): 315-384.
- Wood Hansen O & van den Bergh J 2024, "Environmental problem shifting from climate change mitigation: A mapping review." PNAS Nexus 3 - 1 - 448.
- van den Bergh J, van Beers C & King LC 2024, 'Prioritize carbon pricing over fossil-fuel subsidy reform', Iscience, 27 - 1.
- Savin I & van den Bergh J 2024, "Reviewing studies of degrowth: Are claims matched by data, methods and policy analysis?" Ecological Economics 226, 108324.
- Savin I, Drews S, van den Bergh J 2024, 'Carbon pricing - perceived strengths, weaknesses and knowledge gaps according to a global expert survey', Environmental research letters, 19 - 2 - 024014.
- Drews S, Savin I & Bergh JV 2024, 'A Global Survey of Scientific Consensus and Controversy on Instruments of Climate Policy', Ecological economics, 218-108098.
- Torren-Peraire D, Savin I, van den Bergh JCJM 2024, 'An Agent-Based Model of Cultural Change for a Low-Carbon Transition', Jasss-the journal of artificial societies and social simulation, 27 - 1, 13.
- Salekpay F, van den Bergh J & Savin I 2024, 'Comparing advice on climate policy between academic experts and ChatGPT', Ecological economics, 226 -108352.
- Liu F, van den Bergh J & Wei YH 2024, 'Testing mechanisms through which China's ETS promotes a low-carbon transition', Energy economics 132, 107494.