About
I work as Senior Researcher at TNO Energy Transition Studies and as Associate Professor at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development of Utrecht University.
My research can perhaps best be summarized as applied empirical economic research into the distribution of costs and benefits of the energy transition. In bits and pieces I try to identify broad welfare effects of the energy transition. To this aim I combine insights from macroeconomics, energy economics and spatial economics.
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Current research topics include energy poverty, transport poverty, income and employment effects of the energy transition, and green investment performance of housing associations.
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I am fascinated by the phenomenon of technology diffusion - which is often at least as costly, lengthy and difficult as technological innovation. Which is perhaps also the best argument as to why the energy transition benefits from multidisciplinary research…
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Apart from the economics of the energy transition, I am interested in research on energy use and urbanization, cities and the spatial structure of economic development, spatial inequality, and the role of institutions and governance in economic development.
Recent and current research
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Measurement, mapping and monitoring of energy poverty (with CBS)
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The link between energy poverty and health care costs
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Distribution of income effects of home insulation (with CPB)
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Size and nature of employment effects of (local) investments in the energy transition (with TNO Healthy Living & Work and Maastricht University/ROA)
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Spatial distribution of future house value losses due to planned onshore wind turbines
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Transport poverty and the energy transition
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