Peter Birch Sørensen

• Presentation
• CV
• Research outputs
• Press/Media
• Activities
• Keywords

Link to personal website

Research fields

My primary current research area is environmental economics and the economics of climate change. My recent research topics include issues relating to recycling and the circular economy, optimal unilateral climate policy in an open economy faced with the risk of climate leakage, the functioning and reform of the European Emissions Trading System, the optimal transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and the theoretical foundations of “green” national accounting. I am currently co-directing a research project aimed at estimating the evolution of Denmark’s  stock of natural capital and Green Net National Product and a research project developing a simulation model of the interaction between the Danish economy and the environment. I have also carried out research in public economics, in particular the economics of taxation and tax policy and the design of social insurance systems. In addition, I am interested in the macroeconomics of business cycles and stabilization policy as well as the drivers of long term economic growth. In recent years, I have published some studies of house price developments in Denmark and Sweden and their interaction with the macro economy. I am a member of the CESifo Research Network headquartered in Munich and a former scientific coordinator of that network's Public Sector Economics programme.

Teaching

Over the years I have been teaching macroeconomics and the economics of taxation and tax policy. At the moment my teaching falls within the area of environmental economics. The themes in my teaching relate to issues of sustainable development, the theory and measurement of a "green" net national product, the valuation of environmental goods, the choice of instruments in environmental policy, "green" tax reform, optimal extraction of non-renewable and renewable natural resources, and the economics of climate policy.