- Svenn Jensen
Associate Professor
Economics
Oslo Business School
Oslo Metropolitan University
- ResearchPricing Climate RiskWith Christian Traeger.
We analyze how uncertainty about the sensitivity of the climate system to human emissions in optimal policy. We provide an approximate analytic formula for the uncertainty premium and calculate the premium for a full stochastic integrated assessment model.
Optimal climate change mitigation under long-term growth uncertainty: Stochastic integrated assessment and analytic findingsWith Christian Traeger. European Economic Review, 2014.Economic growth over the coming centuries is one of the major determinants of today׳s optimal greenhouse gas mitigation policy. At the same time, long-run economic growth is highly uncertain. This paper is the first to evaluate optimal mitigation policy under long-term growth uncertainty in a stochastic integrated assessment model of climate change. The sign and magnitude of the impact depend on preference characteristics and on how damages scale with production. We explain the different mechanisms driving optimal mitigation under certain growth, under uncertain technological progress in the discounted expected utility model, and under uncertain technological progress in a more comprehensive asset pricing model based on Epstein–Zin–Weil preferences. In the latter framework, the dominating uncertainty impact has the opposite sign of a deterministic growth impact; the sign switch results from an endogenous pessimism weighting. All of our numeric scenarios use a DICE based assessment model and find a higher optimal carbon tax than the deterministic DICE base case calibration.Cutting Costs of Catching CarbonWith Michael Hoel. Resource and Energy Economics, 2012.We use a two-period model to investigate intertemporal effects of cost reductions in climate change mitigation technologies for the power sector. The effect of cost reductions for CCS depends on how carbon taxes are set. If there is no carbon tax in period 1, but an optimally set carbon tax in period 2, a CCS cost reduction may reduce early emissions. Such an innovation may therefore be more desirable than comparable cost cuts related to renewable energy. The finding rests on the incentives fossil fuel owners face. If future profitability is reduced, they speed up extraction (the ‘green paradox’), and vice versa.An Introduction to the Green Paradox: The Unintended Consequences of Climate Policies
with Kristina Mohlin, Karen Pittel & Thomas Sterner.
Review of Environmental Economics & Policy, 2015
How important is the Green Paradox? We address this question in three ways. First, we present a simple model explaining how announcing a future climate policy may increase carbon emissions today – the Green Paradox effect. Second, we examine the theoretical and empirical literature to assess whether green paradoxes are likely to occur, and if they are, whether they are big enough to be of concern for policy makers. We consider long-term extraction costs, short-term extraction capacities, the mix of policy instruments, and potential spatial carbon leakage. We find that these and other factors mostly weaken the case for concern about the green paradox. Third, we identify the lessons the literature offers for policy makers.
- TeachingAdvanced Environmental & Resource EconomicsUniversity of Gothenburg, Fall 2014, 2015
Environmental Economics (Master level)
Oslo Metropolitan University, Fall 2018
- ExperiencePostdoctoral Researcher
School of Economics and Business
Norwegian University of Life Sciences
2014-2018
Ciriacy Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics
UC Berkeley
2012-2014
Junior Researcher
Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics
2007-2008
- EducationPhD Economics2012University of OsloVisting Student at UC Berkeley2010 & 2011MPhil Development and Environmental Economics2007 University of OsloBCom Honours Economics2004Nelson Mandela Metropolitan UniversityVordiplom Economics2003Universität Hohenheim
- Refereeing
Nature: Climate Change
American Economic Journal: Policy
European Economic Review
International Economic Review
Journal of Public Economics
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Environment and Resource Economics
Environment and Development Economics
Resource and Energy Economics
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Climatic Change