Bio

I am a postdoc at the Utrecht University School of Economics, section Economics. I work on environmental policies and its effects on firms in the Netherlands, with Inge van den Bijgaart. I have a PhD in environmental economics from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (dissertation here).

I do research on clean innovation, technology adoption, policy evaluation, and energy and water consumption. I work with (micro)data and apply econometric methods to answer my research questions.

Research projects

Published works

Economic performance and investments under emissions trading: Untangling the effects of a staggered regulation

Published in Energy Economics (2025, open access) (link).

with Konstantin Sommer.

Abstract: We study the effects of the EU Emissions Trading System on the economic performance and investments of Dutch manufacturing firms. Motivated both by sizable differences between firms that became regulated in different phases and by a gradual increase in regulatory stringency, we pay close attention to the staggered design of the ETS as well as to potential treatment effect heterogeneity. We base our estimation on recent advances in the estimation of treatment effects and make use of administrative microdata. Our results align with those of the previous literature. Even when studying the more stringent third phase and when using estimators appropriate for the staggered ETS setting, there seems to be no discernible effects of the ETS on firms’ economic performance. We also do not find any statistically significant effect on the investment behavior of regulated firms.

The energy efficiency gap and barriers to investments: Evidence from a firm survey in The Netherlands

Published in Energy Economics (2024, open access) (link).

with Sacha den Nijs and Henri de Groot.

Seed money funding by Amsterdam Sustainability Institute (ASI) (€10,000).

In the news (BNR).

Abstract: This study investigates the energy efficiency (EE) gap, referring to private agents who are not making seemingly profitable investments to reduce energy use. We deploy a questionnaire among firms in The Netherlands in which we ask them about investment behavior and barriers to investing in EE. A set of 16 barriers is constructed based on the literature. We find that most firms (70%) have made EE investments in the past five years, and that the median firm has saved 10% of its energy use. The remaining profitable EE investment opportunities still leave room for another 15% of energy savings at the median firm. We find that uncertainty about future policies ranks as the leading barrier to EE investments, followed by lock-ins in current equipment, and energy price uncertainty. Especially energy-intensive firms indicate the importance of policy uncertainty. Additionally, we find that a firm’s network can be an important channel for obtaining EE investment knowledge.

Bridging the Nexus: Policy and welfare dimensions in hydro-economic models

Published in Water Resources Management (2026, open access) (link).

with Erik Ansink, Safa Baccour, Juan Pablo Henao, Adria Rubio-Martin and Maria Vrachioli.

Works in progress

Induced innovation under competitive pressure

Available on my website (link).

Abstract: As directed technical change has the potential to delink economic activity from environmental degradation, understanding the drivers of environment-related innovation is valuable to policy makers. This chapter empirically investigates two drivers of clean innovation, energy prices and market competition, grounded in the induced innovation and inverted-U literature, respectively. Using a self-constructed dataset, I find evidence of the induced innovation hypothesis, but only when studying energy price changes, and not when studying energy price levels. I also consistently find an inverted-U relationship between competition and innovation, although the relationship is statistically uncertain. When combining the two hypotheses, the results are inconclusive. I do not find consistent and significant evidence that market competition affects the induced innovation effect. While the induced innovation findings are robust against different econometric specifications and estimation methods, they vary depending on whether energy prices are first-differenced or not. The literature would benefit from clarifying which specification is preferred.

Fuzzy firm name matching: Merging Amadeus firm data to PATSTAT

Available as Tinbergen Institute discussion paper (link).

Newer version available on my website (link).

Code and results available on GitHub.

Household water savings from home visits: Information, technology and price effects

with Erik Ansink, Carmine Ornaghi and Mirco Tonin.

Environmental policies and heterogeneous firm performance: Evidence from Dutch microdata

with Inge van den Bijgaart and Giacomo Domini.

Subsidizing water trades to internalize ecosystem externalities

with Erik Ansink, Adria Rubio-Martin and Hector Macian-Sorribes.

Other output

Klimaatbeleid onder druk: beleidscoördinatie urgenter dan ooit

In KVS Preadviezen 2025 (Dutch) (link).

with Inge van den Bijgaart, Carolyn Fischer and Henri de Groot.

Dreigend drinkwatertekort noopt tot vraagreductie

In ESB (4 December 2024, Dutch) (link).

with Erik Ansink.

Teaching & supervision

I am enthusiastic about teaching. In the classroom I invite participation and discussion. I want my students to both gain a technical and an intuitive understanding of the materials. Where needed I provide students with extra material, like Python notebooks that further link up theory with graphical solutions (see for example this or this notebook on GitHub).

Teaching

• 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025: Environmental and Resource Economics (MSc STREEM, VU)
• 2023, 2024: Geo Data (2 Python computer lab sessions) (BSc minor, VU)
• 2023, 2024: Grand Challenges for Sustainability (BSc minor, VU)
• 2023: Economics of Environmental Policy Instrument Design (MSc STREEM, VU)
• 2019, 2020, 2021: Inclusive Growth and Sustainability (3rd year BSc elective, VU)
• 2019, 2020, 2021: Academic Skills (1st year BSc Economics and Business Economics, VU)
• 2019: Microeconomics IV: Behavioral Economics (MPhil Economics, Tinbergen Institute)

Supervision

• 2026: BSc theses (BSc Economics and Business Economics, UU)
• 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025: MSc theses (MSc STREEM, MSc Economics, VU)
• 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025: Research Projects (MSc STREEM, MSc Economics, VU)

Presentations & reviews

Presentations

• World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (WCERE) [2026, Lisbon]
• Mannheim Conference on Energy and the Environment (MCEE) [2026, Mannheim]
• UoB-VU Amsterdam Big Data and Economics Research Network (BVRN) [2025, Amsterdam]
• Dutch Environmental and Resource Economics (DEARE) day [2024, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2025, Wageningen, Netherlands]
• International Conference on Ex-Post Evaluation of Emission Trading (LIFE COASE) [2023 online]
• Spanish-Portuguese Association of Natural and Environmental Resources Economics (AERNA) [2022 Barcelona, Spain]
• European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) [2022 Pisa, Italy]
• Sustainable Resource Use and Economic Dynamics (SURED) [2022 Ascona, Switzerland]
• Research Retreat "Sustainable Economy - Harnessing innovation, finance and skills for the low-carbon transition" [2022 Morzine, France]
• Environmental Economics workshop (DEARE predecessor) [2022 Tilburg, Netherlands]
• European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) [2020 online; 2022 Rimini, Italy; 2024 Leuven, Belgium]

Peer reviews

• Research Policy [2026]
• Energy Economics [2025, 2026]
• Water Resources and Economics [2023, 2024]
• Environmental and Resource Economics [2022]

Short CV

Work experience

• 2025-..: Postdoc @ Utrecht University
• 2023-25: Postdoc @ VU Amsterdam
• 2019-23: PhD candidate @ VU Amsterdam
• 2019-19: Teaching assistant @ Tinbergen Institute
• 2019-19: Teaching assistant @ VU Amsterdam
• 2016-17: Trainee @ European Central Bank
• 2013-16: Working student @ ONS Accountants

Education

• 2019-25: PhD @ VU Amsterdam (dissertation)
• 2017-19: MPhil Economics @ Tinbergen Institute
• 2015-17: MSc Economics @ Tilburg University
• 2012-15: BSc Economics and Business Economics @ Tilburg University
• Including an exchange semester @ HEC Montreal

Skills

• Software: Python, R, Stata, LaTeX
• Languages: Dutch (native), English (fluent), German (beginner)
• Other: Presenting, visualization