The price of CO2 is perhaps the most important price in the world, states a news article in the Dutch newspaper NRC (17 September 2021). Carolyn Fischer – professor of Environmental Economics at the Department of Spatial Economics – argues that the current price of CO2 does not include the external costs for the economy…

How can we relieve the pressure on the traffic infrastructure in the long term, taking into account sustainability, energy transition and accessibility? This is the main question that research project MOCOLODO (MObiliteit during and after COrona LOckDOwn) addresses. MOCOLODO is a collaboration between a number of universities, led by Spatial Economics’ head of department Erik Verhoef. Even without…

Covid-19 brings about unprecedented economic change. What exactly are the consequences of the policies pursued during the pandemic for retail and, in particular, for shopping streets? That is the question that economists Hans Koster, Jos van Ommeren, Cheng Keat Tang and Nander Bras answer in a recent study. Their research is based on rental income…

“Smart incentives in between pricing and rewarding” (Slimme prikkels tussen prijzen en belonen) was the title of the final workshop of research project U-SMILE (Urban Smart Measures and Incentives for quality of Life Enhancement). The event was part of the VerDuS SURF*-festival and took place in the morning of March 25. With more than 50…

Spatial Economics’ Eric Koomen and former postdoc Dani Broitman won the VOGON Award 2020 for the best paper in the magazine Real Estate Research Quarterly. The paper (in Dutch) ‘Stedelijke centra magneten voor woningen‘ (translated as: Urban centers magnets for homes) contributes to the social debate about housing production. The Committee praises the clear analysis…

How much support is there for the introduction of tradeable peak credits in order to solve congestion? Lizet Krabbenborg (former PhD candidate at Delft University of Technology, currently researcher at KiM) conducted research into this question, which resulted in a thesis entitled Tradable Credits for Congestion Management: support/reject? Lizet was involved in research project U-SMILE – Urban Smart…

In recent research, Jan Rouwendal and Maureen Lankhuizen examine developments in rents and returns in the private rented sector. The private rented sector had little room to manoeuvre in the Dutch housing market after the Second World War. It was hemmed in between a sizeable social rental sector and a tax-advantaged owner-occupied sector. In recent…

Smart mobility could make policy objectives be achieved faster and more efficiently. In order to assess these promises and to exploit the potential it is necessary to equip professionals involved in policy making and delivery with a solid set of knowledge and methods. For this purpose, an e-course for policy makers designed, presenting the key…

The current corona pandemic has a huge impact on our society and the economy. The Dutch economy shrank with 8.5% in the second quarter of 2020, while the IMF has predicted that the overall world economy will shrink by 4.9% this year. Although the vaccination program is slowly picking up steam, the pandemic is far…

What are the effects of the city wide parking prices increases that were implied in Amsterdam in April 2019? This is the main question that Leonardo Nunes addresses  in his master thesis on ’Parking policy: Evidence from Amsterdam’.  In order to answer this question, he used transaction data to investigate how these price increases affected parking…