Economics of disruptive change (EDC)

The EDC theme embraces economic behaviors under the risk of large disruptive (regime changing) shocks, including climate tipping points, eco-system breakdown, pandemic shocks, and disruptive technological or political changes.

The hallmark of the research undertaken under the auspices of the EDC theme is that it studies the nexus of pre-shock and post-shock behaviors within a coherent framework. Pre-shock behaviors include prevention and precaution, for example, through the build-up of adaptive capacity, while post-shock behaviors include adaptation and the potential to choose different (and more sustainable/resilient) pathways of recovery. Studies typically involve modeling and empirical applications. For more information on topics and methods used see the section themes and models below.

Selected Publications

Buratto, A., Muttoni, M., Wrzaczek, S., & Freiberger, M. (2022). Should the COVID-19 lockdown be relaxed or intensified in case a vaccine becomes available? PLoS ONE 17 (9) e0273557. 10.1371/journal.pone.0273557.

Freiberger, M., Grass, D., Kuhn, M., Seidl, A., & Wrzaczek, S. (2022). Chasing up and locking down the virus: Optimal pandemic interventions within a network. Journal of Public Economic Theory 24 (5) 1182-1217. 10.1111/jpet.12604.

Feichtinger, G., Lambertini, L., Leitmann, G., & Wrzaczek, S. (2022). Managing the tragedy of commons and polluting emissions: a unified view. European Journal of Operational Research 303 (1) 487-499. 10.1016/j.ejor.2022.02.034.

Caulkins, J.P., Grass, D., Feichtinger, G., Hartl, R.F., Kort, P.M., Prskawetz, A., Seidl, A., & Wrzaczek, S. (2021). The optimal lockdown intensity for COVID-19. Journal of Mathematical Economics 93 e102489. 10.1016/j.jmateco.2021.102489.

All Research Group Publications

Models, tools, datasets

Two-stage optimal control models with stochastic switch (2SOCS)

Modelling household risk behaviour (MODIBE)

Projects

Long-term spillover impacts of financial markets on the environment (PVARGLOBIOM)

Modelling the regional welfare impacts of just coal transitions (JUSTCOAL)

News

girl in lockdown looking out of the window

05 September 2022

Lessons learned from COVID-19 mitigation measures

Due to the uncertainty of the timing of vaccine approval at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers struggled to find the best mitigation measures. In a new study, researchers analyzed how the expectation of a vaccine influences optimal lockdown measures.