Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)

The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Germany, is widely known for its empirical economic research. It has particularly distinguished itself nationally and internationally by analysing internationally comparative issues in the European context and by compiling scientifically important data bases. The ZEW is a non-profit economic research institute, founded in 1990. At present, 154 employees work at the ZEW. The high quality of the research work conducted at the institute was confirmed by the advisory body to the Federal Government of Germany, and further documented externally by the admission of the ZEW to Federal Government and Länder Funding. At the same time the ZEW became a memberinstitute of the “Leibniz Association”. The ZEW’s main tasks comprise economic research, economic policy counselling and knowledge transfer. The results of the research work conducted at the institute are communicated to companies, politicians, scientists and to the public via the media such as newspapers or the Internet and with different publications. In addition, the ZEW offers high-level seminars for qualified personnel and executives in Germany and from abroad.

Research challenges

The ZEW research department Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management is primarily devoted to the challenges of sustainable development. With respect to both the goals of sustainability and the means of accomplishing these goals there are diverging social and political ideas. It is crucial to specify and operationalise the concept of sustainable development in order to evaluate policy proposals on a comparative basis. The research area is devoted to analysing questions of the transition to sustainable economic structures by applying state-ofthe- art micro-economic and micro-econometric methods and to develop politically feasible guidelines for action.

Rational decision-making support in almost every environmental policy field – including energy, transportation and climate policy – requires the modelling and, as far as possible, the quantification of economic and environmental impacts of alternative strategies. This is inevitable in order to identify and forcefully assess potentially conflicting goals. Moreover, size and distribution of potential adjustment costs determine the acceptability of transformations derived from sustainability considerations. Accordingly, next to environmental impacts, quantitative information concerning the effects of environmental and economic policies on the economy as a whole, on economic sectors, and on private and public households are of great significance for decisionmaking support.

Against this background the research department’s commitment reflects a profile characterised by problem consciousness in the analysis of present environmental and economic policy issues as well as by scientific competence regarding the methods employed in the analyses.

Focus Areas

The expertise of the research department is structured along five focus areas:

• Innovation and Sustainable Development

• Energy Economics

• Transport and Mobility

• International Environmental and Resource Policies

• Macroeconomic Analysis of Environmentally Relevant Policies

The research area Innovation and Sustainable Development analyses the determinants and economic impact of environmental innovations. Moreover, rules, indicators, and strategies for sustainable development are developed. Research in Energy Economics is typically characterised by trade-offs between the goals of affordable energy supply, security of supply and environmentally sustainable energy use. Consequently, the topics include international energy policy as well as its relation to climate change policy goals. Developments of the framework for the liberalised European energy industries such as, e.g., the EU-wide CO2 permit trading or renewable certificate trading scheme are also analysed. The research area Transport and Mobility is devoted to the question how transport and mobility needs are to be met on a long-term sustainable basis. Shifts of the modes of transport and increasing transport efficiency are the primary regulative concepts under consideration. Central concern in the area International Environmental and Resource Policies are regulatory systems for sovereign states addressing the institutionalisation of cross-border and global environmental policy - notably the architecture of international climate agreements. The Macroeconomic Analysis of Environmentally Relevant Policies assumes the task of quantitative evaluation of economic policy regulation across all thematic research areas. Of particular interest are climate protection policy and the associated structural change. A modelbased macroeconomic analytical framework permits systematic and consistent measurement and simulation of the impact of policy measures on the three dimensions of sustainable development: ecology, economy, and social equity.

The work of the department is typically financed by the European Union, national governments, national and international research funding institutions or private sector companies. Research projects are aimed at providing the base for informed decision making in energy or climate policy. Through its outstanding expertise in economic analysis and quantitative simulation and modelling the department is actively participating in a number of international research networks. Examples in the area of international climate policy are the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) established at Stanford University or the Climate Policy Network covering four research institutions in Europe (ZEW and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Italy) and the United States (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Resources for the Future).

W: www.zew.de
W: www.zew.eu