Löfgren, Åsa
Åsa Löfgren is Associate Professor and Assistant Head of Department at the Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg. Currently, Löfgren is working on research issues related to climate change and behavioral economics; in particular, her research covers different aspects of policy instruments, fairness, and industrial investment behavior.
Löfgren has studied research questions of both empirical character (e.g. the actual effect of policy instruments such as energy taxes and the effect of CO2 tax on carbon emissions) and theoretical character (e.g. the effect of habit formation on environmental taxation), which gives her a broad competence in economics research in such various areas of economics as environmental economics, econometrics, political economy and behavioral economics. Furthermore, Löfgren has worked extensively with the investment behavior of firms, more specifically, firms' carbon-reduction investment behavior in response to climate strategies. She has also done collaborative research on uncertainty and how this affects the incentives to invest in new technology in line with the option theory of investment. Löfgren has published in peer-reviewed journals (e.g. Energy Journal and Applied Economics), written book chapters (e.g. chapter 10 in Choosing Environmental Policy: Comparing Instruments and Outcomes in the U.S. and Europe, RFF Press) and reports for the European Union, DG ENV.
She has also given research counseling to former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on climate change issues and Allan Larsson as part of advising President Barosso regarding climate change policies in the EU. Löfgren teaches at the undergraduate level in economics, and she has taught courses abroad and at other universities. Further she supervises both undergraduate and graduate students.
Her research is funded by the Mistra Indigo research program: Instrument Design for Global Climate Mitigation, and the Formas COMMONS research program: Human Cooperation to Manage Natural Resources.
Expertise/Research area:
- Environmental economics related to climate change
- Policy instruments and industrial investment behaviour
- Behavioural economics, such as the effect of habit formation on environmental taxation
- Absolute and relative preferences for environmental goods.
