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Erlend Dancke Sandorf

Erlend Dancke Sandorf

Førsteamanuensis

  • Handelshøyskolen

I am an environmental and resource economist who works at the intersection of environmental economics and choice modeling, and specialize in trying to understand the value that nature and natural resources have for humans.

What is the total cost of an invasive species? How much are people willing to pay to protect cold-water corals along the Norwegian coast? What level of subsidy is necessary to incentivize Vietnamese shrimp farmers to invest in sustainable production practices?

Valuing nature is about making the implicit trade-offs explicit. It means obtaining estimates of costs and benefits associated with policy changes that are as precise as possible to provide policy makers with a good basis on which to make policy. Most models and methods used to value nature assume that people are rational and utility maximizing, but we know that in reality, this is not necessarily true. I use and develop advanced discrete choice models that can accommodate non-utility maximizing behavior to better understand how people make important decisions in both real and contingent markets. Better tools leads to better estimates and information for policy makers and ultimately better and more sustainable policies. 

Since graduating with a PhD in 2016, I have published 22 peer reviewed papers in leading field journals, and 2 of the papers where I am first author have received prizes for "best paper". To see a full list of my publications, please see my Google Scholar page.