Register for this course which provides an in-depth exploration of current research in public and environmental economics. The course will be held at our beautiful campus in Ås near Oslo, May 27-29.
- 3 Credits
- English language course
- Physical attendance at NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås, Norway. Meeting room: TBA
Apply: skatteforsk@nmbu.no (include own ongoing paper/project idea for acceptance). (Rolling admission. Max 20 participants)
Admission criteria: Must be enrolled in a PhD program in economics or related field + Submit a ongoing paper/project idea for approval. The paper/project idea will form the basis for the applicants presentations during the course.
About this course
This intensive course provides doctoral students with an in-depth exploration of current research in public and environmental economics, with a particular focus on taxation, inequality, organizational form, and firm behavior. Climate policy relies heavily on tax and other price instruments such as carbon pricing, fuel and energy taxes, green subsidies and tax expenditures. These instruments interact with inequality through consumption patterns, ownership of capital, labour market adjustments, and exposure to environmental risks. This intensive course provides doctoral students with a research-oriented introduction to key concepts, empirical evidence, and open research questions at the intersection of taxation, inequality, and the environment. It also trains core academic skills: presenting early-stage research, discussing others’ work constructively, and responding to feedback.
The course is designed to stimulate reflection and identify open research questions and knowledge gaps, to broaden the PhD students’ networks, and to spur new collaborations across institutions and fields.
Program
| Wednesday 27th of May | Day 1: Foundations and big picture (lectures + discussion) |
| 13:00 - 14:00 | Session 1: Taxes, environmental policy, and inequality: the big picture. Annette Alstadsæter |
| Break | |
| 14:15 - 15:15 | Session 2: Environmental taxation and distributional impacts Knut Einar Rosendahl |
| 15:15 - 16:00 | Guided discussions and structured reflections Yannic Rehm and Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen |
| 16:30 | Course dinner (Vitenparken) |
| Thursday 28th of May | Day 2: Who emits, who pays, and what drives acceptance and innovation (lectures + discussion) |
| 09:00 - 10:00 | Session 3: Innovation, green technological change, and the role of carbon pricing and tax policy Knut Einar Rosendahl |
| Break | |
| 10:15 - 11:15 | Session 4: Inequality in emissions and responsibility for decarbonisation Yannic Rehm and Annette Alstadsæter |
| Break | |
| 11:30 - 12:30 | Guided discussions and structured reflections Yannic Rehm and Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen |
| 12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 - 14:30 | Session 5: Public acceptance, fairness, and political economy of environmental taxes Katinka Holtsmark |
| 14:30 - 16:00 | Guided discussions and structured reflections Yannic Rehm and Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen |
| Friday 29th of May | Day 3: Academic skills lab |
| 09:00 - 13:00 incl. lunch | Session 6: Presenting research, discussing well, and giving useful feedback Yannic Rehm, Knut Einar Rosendahl, Arild Angelsen, Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen. |
Financial support
The course is free of charge and Skatteforsk will cover hotel for 2 nights and meals during the course days for the participants. Participants are expected to cover travel costs through their home institutions, and if this is not possible, they may apply for travel support from the Nordic Tax Research Council (rolling deadline, typically fast processing): https://nsfr.se/research-grants/
If travel support applications is documentably denied by the Nordic Tax Research Council, the participants may apply for travel cost contribution at skatteforsk@nmbu.no on a case-by-case basis.
Course Details
Credits are awarded when the workload is completed and approved.
Mandatory activity is: 1) full participation at the course (three days). 2) Presentation of own research project or idea in small, mentored groups and act as discussant for a peer presentation. Exam: Written home exam.
Lecturers and contributing teachers
Professor Annette Alstadsæter is founding Director of Skatteforsk at NMBU and Program Director for the Atlas of the Offshore World at the International Tax Observatory in Paris. Her policy relevant research on tax evasion, tax avoidance, and inequality publishes in top academic journals and is regularly featured in policy notes and by the media.
Professor Knut Einar Rosendahl at NMBU is also has an adjunct position at the Research Department of Statistics Norway. Rosendahl’s research centres around environmental and energy economics, with special focus on climate policies, technology policies, and fossil fuel markets. He specializes within analytical methods and numerical modelling of energy markets, CO2 emissions and the world economy.
Katinka Holtsmark is Assistant professor at the Department of Economics, University of Oslo. Her research interests are in applied microeconomic theory, mainly within environmental economics and public economics. Her research includes work on carbon emission permit markets, supply-side climate policy and technological change.
Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen is Program Director at Skatteforsk at NMBU where she coordinates PhD courses, manages research projects and facilitates research impact through governmental hearing responses and reports. She has worked extensively on international and national tax in governmental and NGO bodies and previously worked as manager in a consultancy firm.
Yannic Rehm is a PhD student at Paris School of Economics working on questions linked to inequality, climate change and taxation. He has previously studied at Humboldt University Berlin, UC Berkeley and Paris School of Economics, where he graduated with a Master's degree in 2021
Arild Angelsen is a Professor at the School of Economics and Business at NMBU, specializing in tropical deforestation, climate policy, and sustainable resource use. His recent research projects include supply-chain initiatives such as EUDR and field experiments to test resource users’ response to conservation interventions.