About the event

The 22nd Annual Conference of the external pageEuropean Association of Environmental and Resource Economistscall_made (EAERE) was hosted by ETH Zurich on 22-25 June 2016. The successful conference attracted about 700 participants from all over the world. The Chair of Economics/Resource Economics of CER-ETH was the local organizer.

At the meeting of the EAERE Council and the General Assembly of Members, the ETH proposal to launch a new EAERE-ETH European Winter School series in Environmental and Resource Economics was approved. The new format is an important initiative to extend EAERE’s offers to junior researchers, relying on the well-functioning and moderately priced conference centre with accommodation in the beautiful surrounding of Monte Verità in Ascona.

The aim of the Winter Schools is to provide advanced training to European doctoral and post-doctoral students in specialised topics relating to the field of environmental and resource economics. The topics are selected by the EAERE Council and vary every year. The issues discussed generally reflect lively areas of current research and policy interest. The reasons for organising this school at the European level are:

1. single higher education institution often do not have the critical mass of either staff or students to organise advanced training in specialised topics, so there are clear benefits to collaboration;
2. given the relatively small number of PhD students in the field of environmental and resource economics in any single European country, many benefits arise from collaboration across borders;
3. to attract the very best teachers in Europe and the US to lead the Winter School, to the obvious benefit of the students;
4. given the diversity of environmental problems facing different European countries and the policy responses to those problems, there are clear pedagogic benefits to students learning about these different approaches, and the Winter Schools provide first-hand experience of sharing these ideas by dialogue with students and staff from other countries;
5. the benefits from networking with other staff and students extend beyond the period of the Winter School; contacts established can be renewed later at conferences and other meetings;
6. these broader benefits accrue not just to the students but also to the staff. During the week they get a chance to discuss ideas with other researchers on a more sustained basis than what is often offered by a conference. They meet some of the best PhD students and Postdocs in Europe to learn about their research, to discover possibilities for future collaboration, and to spot potential recruits into research/teaching posts.

Only EAERE members may attend the School.