Thomas S. Lontzek

Climate Change Policy in a Risky World

Most analyses of climate policy neglect the stochastic variability of the macroeconomy. Thomas S. Lontzek, together with Yongyang Cai and Kenneth L. Judd, have developed, a stochastic integrated assessment model – DSICE – for the analysis of climate policies under economic and climate risks. In contrast to deterministic models that can steer the economy precisely, a stochastic framework accounts for random variability of economic development and is therefore an appropriate tool for the study of climate policies for the long run.

Mr. Lontzek's main research fields are environmental and resource economics, computational economics and economic growth. In a recent article in Nature Climate Change he argued that the risk of multiple interacting tipping points should encourage rapid CO2 emission reduction.

While in Munich, Mr. Lontzek will discuss with Ifo researchers current work on sustainable long-run growth and methods of incorporating various forms of risks into integrated models of climate and the economy.

Thomas S. Lontzek is Professor of Economics at the School of Business and Economics at RWTH Aachen University as well as External Research Associate at OxCarre, University of Oxford. He was previously Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Chair of Quantitative Business Administration of the University of Zurich and Affiliated Researcher at RDCEP, the Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy at the University of Chicago. From 2007 to 2010 he worked as an Economist at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. He holds an MSc in Economics from Maastricht University and a PhD in Economics from Kiel University.