UROP Project

Recent empirical issues in environmental economics

In the field of development economics, the relationship between economic and political development and the level of environmental degradation has been a highly studied issue over the last decades. Recent improvements in data availability (spatial economic data, data derived from satellite images) and computational power have offered new opportunities for more detailed research projects in this field and to move from a pure country-level perspective to a regional one.

Task

The first part of the project will consist of getting a brief overview of the relevant literature and develop - together with the project supervisor - a particular research question that fits the individual interests of the research intern. Based on the concrete research focus of the project, research hypotheses will be derived from the relevant literature that can later be tested empirically. In the next step, relevant data will be collected from publicly available data sources and empirical econometric analyses will be conducted to test the research hypotheses. The final step consists of interpreting, discussing and visualizing the results as well as preparing the research poster for the symposium.

Requirements

You should be interested in current topics of development economics, in particular environmental economics and/or political economy. Moreover, a general understanding of basic economic concepts is necessary, but deeper knowledge in the particular research field can also be obtained during the project period. Further, a deep interest in learning new software and improving analytical skills as well as willingness to develop own ideas are very helpful.