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The EF Program aspires to provide a comprehensive and rigorous framework for understanding the behavioral changes that are required to achieve social and environmental transformations and what policies and institutional reforms are needed to bring about the required incentives.
Explicit consideration is given to:
- The governance of transitional change.
- The provision of equal life chances
- The capacity of the economic system to deal with (prevent and adjust to) disruptive changes.
- The conception of economic development and wellbeing in a finite and interlinked world.
The program’s research integrates tightly with the natural, environmental, population, and systems science frameworks that IIASA is leading on, thus providing the multi-disciplinary approach needed for an understanding of the transition to sustainable, fair, and resilient economies. The program aims to act as an international hub for high-level external economic expertise as well as expertise from other relevant sciences (e.g., sociology, psychology, environmental and natural sciences, mathematics) to engage in capacity building, and to establish links with leading international research and policy institutions to leverage internal resources.
The Young Scientist Summer Program (YSSP) at IIASA offers doctoral students the chance to participate and contribute to research in the EF Program.
Current EF Research Fields
The EF program started on 1 January 2021 and its research agenda is still being developed. While the program’s current research focuses on the two fields below, as well as topical research pertaining to economic aspects of COVID-19, the program is in the process of developing a research agenda for two additional fields on the Governance of Transitions (GT) and Economic Development and Wellbeing in a Finite and Interlinked World (EFW). Aspects of these fields are already present in the research undertaken under the two existing research fields where relevant.
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Economics of Equal Life Chances (EELC)
Research undertaken as part of the EELC field focuses on issues related to distributional consequences of development trends and transformative policies, especially as it relates to vulnerable populations.
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Economics of disruptive change (EDC)
The EDC field 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.
Selected Program Publications
Bloom, D.E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2022). Modern Infectious Diseases: Macroeconomic Impacts and Policy Responses. Journal of Economic Literature 60 (1) 85-131. 10.1257/jel.20201642.
Sanchez-Romero, M. (2022). Assessing the generational impact of COVID-19 using National Transfer Accounts (NTAs). In: Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2022. pp. 1-35 Vienna Institute of Demography. ISBN 978-3-7001-8882-7 10.1553/populationyearbook2022.res1.2.
Caulkins, J.P., Grass, D., Feichtinger, G., Hartl, R.F., Kort, P.M., Fürnkranz-Prskawetz, A., Seidl, A., & Wrzaczek, S. (2022). COVID-19 and Optimal Lockdown Strategies: The Effect of New and More Virulent Strains. In: Pandemics: Insurance and Social Protection. Eds. Boado-Penas, M.C., Eisenberg, J., & Şahin, Ş., pp. 163-190 Springer, Cham. ISBN 978-3-030-78334-1 10.1007/978-3-030-78334-1_9.
Chen, S., Prettner, K., Kuhn, M., & Bloom, D.E. (2021). The economic burden of COVID-19 in the United States: Estimates and projections under an infection-based herd immunity approach. The Journal of the Economics of Ageing 20 e100328. 10.1016/j.jeoa.2021.100328.
Chen, S., Kuhn, M., Prettner, K., Bloom, D.E., & Wang, C. (2021). Macro-level efficiency of health expenditure: Estimates for 15 major economies. Social Science and Medicine 287 e114270. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114270.
Staff
Miguel Sanchez-Romero
Guest Research Scholar (EF)
Cynthia Festin
Program and Project Officer (EF)
Omkar Patange
Research Scholar (EF)
Stefan Wrzaczek
Research Scholar (EF)
News
20 January 2023
Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research visits IIASA
IIASA recently welcomed Austria's Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research, Martin Polaschek, to discuss ongoing research projects and explore potential collaborations between the institute and the Austrian government.
13 January 2023
Health insurance as a fuel for medical progress
A new study argues that expanding health insurance coverage can drive medical progress, support wellbeing, and even extend lifespan in the United States.
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.
Focus
29 November 2022
Enhancing global resilience
Options Magazine, Winter 2022: Michael Freiberger is a mathematical economist who uses dynamic modeling to tackle risk related problems.
06 October 2022
Understanding how climate tipping points impact industrial production
Maddalena Muttoni is a 2022 Young Scientists Summer Program participant in the IIASA Economic Frontiers Program. This summer, she modeled the relationship between the Earth’s carbon stock and industrial production, paying special attention to what happens at a climate change tipping point.
01 June 2022
Energy balance
A powerful new IIASA model is set to reveal the profound links between energy and inequality, and how to steer the energy transition towards a fairer future.
