Spatial, Transport and Environmental Economics

This specialization focuses on the economic dimension of regions, urban areas and real estate. Some examples of fundamental questions that we address: why and where do which types of people and firms increasingly want to cluster in space? Why do some cities thrive, while others struggle? What does economic theory teach us about policy challenges that metropolitan areas face, such as crime, segregation, traffic congestion and environmental pollution? How is the growth and decline of cities impacting the building stock? What are the consequences of spatial planning for a region's development potential? What are the costs and benefits of constructing ‘green’ buildings?

The master's programme equips the students with the state-of-the-art of academic insights to analyze these and related policy questions and provide them with an evidence-based foundation.

In the courses, we take a microeconomic perspective and use applied econometric techniques. Hence, this high-quality one-year programme offers students the theoretical knowledge and applied methodological skills to tackle complex problems at a high level of abstraction, while emphasizing the need to translate theoretical solutions into clear-cut evidence-based policy advice.

This specialization focuses on the economic dimensions of transport, traffic, mobility and accessibility. Some examples of fundamental questions that we address: how can we address pressing societal challenges such as congestion, and the associated pressure on urban environmental quality? How can we maintain accessibility of regions and cities, and meet global environmental pressure from transportation? What are the spatial and economic aspects of these challenges? How can we analyze them from an economic perspective, and how can economics help in analyzing, evaluating and formulating policies to address these?
The master's programme equips students with the state-of-the-art of academic economic insights to analyse and answer such questions and provide them with an evidence-based foundation.
In the courses we take a microeconomic perspective and use applied econometric techniques. Hence, this high-quality one-year programme offers students the theoretical knowledge and applied methodological skills to tackle complex problems at a high level of abstraction, while emphasizing the need to translate theoretical solutions into clear-cut evidence-based policy advice.

This master’s programme focuses on the economic dimensions of local, regional, and global environmental issues, the use and depletion of natural resources, and the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. These questions are important both for sustainability of our current living standards and for fighting the devastating effects of global warming. The programme discusses why government policy has not yet been able to deal with the environmental quality, natural resource dependence and climate change effectively. Some examples of fundamental questions that we address are: What is a socially optimal exploitation strategy for renewable resources (such as forestry and fishery), and non-renewable resources (such as fossil fuels)? How does this differ from a free market strategy? Why are resource-rich countries often so poor? How can sub-optimal policies worsen the problem of climate change, leading to a so-called lead ‘Green Paradox’?

The master's programme equips the students with the state-of-the-art of academic economic insights to analyse and answer such questions and provide them with an evidence based foundation.