© Jon Anders Wiken | Dreamstime.com
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.
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.
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.
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
Frankovic, I. & Kuhn, M. (2023). Health insurance, endogenous medical progress, health expenditure growth, and welfare. Journal of Health Economics 87 e102717. 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102717.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Current EF Research Themes
Research in the Economic Frontiers Program covers a broad range of topics. These topics can also span across the EF Research Fields and are examined from different perspectives within the program.
COVID-19 and pandemics
The Economic Frontiers Program investigated different aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic and pandemics in general and published their work in a wide range of scientific journals.
© Alphaspirit | Dreamstime.com
Optimal pandemic management
Researchers in the EF Program have worked on several projects and published multiple papers on different aspects of the management of the spread of an infectious disease.
© Thanasate Chancherngrob | Dreamstime.com
Importance of monitoring break-through infections
In cooperation with colleagues from the Wittgenstein Centre for Global Human Capital Sanchez-Romero investigated the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) with specific focus on the monitoring of break-through infections.
© Vetre Antanaviciute-meskauskiene | Dreamstime.com
The interplay of (higher) transmission rates and vaccine resistance in the evolution of novel SARS-CoV-2 strains
With the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic an issue of controlling the evolution and spread of novel variants is becoming very important. Yuliya Kulikova together with colleagues investigated the three main factors of particular epidemiological concern: higher infectivity, immunogenic drift (vaccine resistance), and increased virulence.
© Heather Bridge | Dreamstime.com
Generational Impact of Covid-19
Miguel Sanchez-Romero conducted an in-depth investigation on the important aspect of the current COVID-19 crisis that not all age groups are equally affected by the pandemic.
Climate impacts and transitions
Research in the Economic Frontiers program within both research groups concerns the impacts of climate change and the consequent transition processes. While the EELC research group focuses on the varying impacts on the heterogeneous population, the EDC group concentrates on the disruptive and general economic aspects of climate change.
© Grafphotogpaher | Dreamstime.com
Optimal taxation of polluting emissions
The control of polluting emissions is an perpetual question in the literature of environmental economics. Different economic settings require different tools and strategies to efficiently keep pollution under control. Stefan Wrzaczek together with international colleagues analyses these strategies within two different settings: (i) Management of the tragedy of commons and polluting emissions through taxation in different market settings. (ii) Pollution control under catastrophic climate change as a differential game.
© Witthayap | Dreamstime.com
Modelling household behaviour in the face of disaster risk
Their have been numerous empirical studies on the specific household characteristics correlated with the different components of disaster risk, i.e. exposure and vulnerability. In cooperation with colleagues from POPJUS and the TU Wien, Michael Freiberger establishes a dynamic household model, which explains the behavior with respect to the risk of natural disasters based on their inherent preferences. This theoretical model is essential for the realistic assessment of policy interventions, as it allows for a projection of intrinsically motivated reactions of households to potential policy interventions.
© Nicoelnino | Dreamstime.com
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies
Deep decarbonization of energy systems is a key step to restrict the global temperature rise to “well below 2 °C”. Majority of global net-zero emission scenarios emphasize on the large-scale deployment of Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to meet the global climate goals.
© Martin Konopka | Dreamstime.com
Investigating IAMs from an analytical perspective
Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) attempt to capture and describe the interactions of (i) human behaviour, (ii) economic activity, and (iii) and climate dynamics and impacts. However, IAMs are often treated as some sort of black-box when calculating solutions. Researchers of the Economic Frontiers Program try to investigate established IAMs from an analytical perspective and generate new insight and illuminate the black-boxes.
Staff
Omkar Patange
Research Scholar (EF)
Cynthia Festin
Program and Project Officer (EF)
Stefan Wrzaczek
Research Scholar (EF)
Claudia Reiter
Guest Research Scholar (EF)
News
24 February 2023
The price of cancer
A new study calculated the economic cost of cancers around the world, helping policymakers allocate resources appropriately and enact policies to curb the increase in cancer-related death and disability.
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.
Events
06 December 2023 Vienna, Austria
Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2023-Exploring Population Heterogeneities
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.
