Prof. Dr. Jan Steckel heads the working group "Climate Policy and Development" at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He is also a professor for climate and development economics at Brandenburg's Technical University in Cottbus. Jan is author of multiple academic and non academic publications focusing on climate policy and economics, inter alia on the political economy of energy transitions, distributional effects of carbon pricing policies or acceptabiltiy of climate policy. He has contributed to various IPCC reports and led a chapter on the international coal phase out in UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2017. Jan has advised governments and international organizations, such as IMF or World Bank, and NGOs. Jan co-leads the Climate Policy for Development Initiative hosted by EfD.
Contact
14412 Potsdam
ORCID
I teach the module "Economic and Social Instruments of Environmental and Resource Management" at BTU Cottbus. It consists of two parts.
The lecture "Economic instruments for climate policy" covers different policy instruments and their economic assessment. The lecture features an introduction to various perspectives on environmental policy, including first-best welfare economic perspectives. It will also introduce to a political economy perspective, including decision problems of different economic agents. The lecture will provide guidance on how to evaluate policy instruments and introduce students to the most common strands of policy analysis.
The seminar "Political Economy of Energy Transitions" will expand students' understanding of challenges to energy transitions. For example, energy transitions may consist of phasing out coal. This course features threats to effective and just energy transitions and options to possibly overcome such threats.
You will find more information here.
Please find a selection of my ongoing research work. For a list of published papers please refer to my google scholar or orcid profile.
Political Economy & distributional effects
- Distributional impacts of climate policy and effective compensation: Evidence from 88 countries. With Leonard Missbach. Working paper.
- How political attitudes change with energy prices. Evidence from Germany. With Théo Konc, Jacob Edenhofer, Thomas Sterner and Jens Ewald. Working paper available on request.
- The political economy of carbon taxation: a systematic review of the case study literature. With Franziska Klein and Niklas Kramer. Working Paper available on request.
- Burden your neighbor? Distributional effects of the EU CBAM on EU trading partners. With Timothé Beaufils, Johannes Gallé, Michael Jakob, Matthias Kalkuhl and Joschka Wanner. Working Paper available on request.
- The poverty and distributional impacts of carbon pricing on households: Evidence from Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda. With Sinem Ayhan, Jann Lay & Hauke Ward. Working paper available on request.
- A Political Backlash to Job Losses in Mining? The Case of Colombia. With Charlotte Bez and Lennard Naumann. Working paper available on request.
Just energy transitions & coal phase out:
- The Economics of a Just Transition. With Ireri Hernandez Carballo, Elena Verdolini, Massimo Tavoni and Francesco Vona. Accepted for publication. Working paper available on request.
- Coal fired power plants and industrial development. Evidence from Indonesia. With Leonard Missbach, Sebastian Kraus & Sebastian Renner. Working paper.
- Converging visions, contested narratives: Media discourse analyses of South Africa’s Just Transition. With Charlotte Bez, Thomas Klug & Giacomo Raederscheidt. Working paper available on request.
- Talking coal. Applying text-as-data methods to news media data in South Africa. With Charlotte Bez and Giacomo Raederscheidt. Working paper available on request.
- Not Just a Transition. Evaluating the Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa using stock market data. With Samson Mukanjari, Thomas Sterner and Dambala Gelo. Working paper available on request.
Sustainable development trade-offs
- Electricity price hikes raise firewood consumption and women's collection time in Malawi. With Raavi Aggarwal. Accepted for publication.
- Negative health effects of a carbon price can outweigh the climate benefits in developing countries. With Raavi Aggarwal, Leonard Missbach, E. Somanathan & Thomas Sterner. Working paper available on request.