Behavioural Environmental Economics Course 2025

The course especially invites graduate (PhD) students who are working on topics in environmental economics from a behavioural economics perspective with an environmental bent. Master students, early career researchers and students from other fields of social sciences are also welcome to participate in the course (subject to availability of space and fulfilling the course pre-requisites). While applying for the course, every applicant will be required to provide a short(maximum 500 words) description their current work, research interests and economics course background. The text will be used for selection and, if accepted, to allocate the participant’s seminar to the related section (where feasible). 

Number of credits: 7.5 ETCS

Marking scale: Pass/Fail

Location: Uppsala (SLU Campus Ultuna), Sweden

There may be a few (about two) three-hour online sessions between August 22 and 25 (to be decided), and the remainder of course time is for self-study.

The detailed daily schedule will be provided closer to the course commencement.

Language: English

Prerequisites: The course is specifically aimed at PhD students within social sciences, in particular economics. Knowledge in basic microeconomics and good knowledge in English (spoken and written) are vital for participating in the course.

Application:Please apply using this form. (open in new window)

After you fill in the form, please send an email with your CV attached (word or pdf, no more than 2 pages) and a motivation letter (word or pdf, no more than 500 words) providing a short (maximum 500 words) description your current work and research interests (explicitly stating how you expect to benefit from the course). Please send this in an email to: phd-economics@slu.se with the subject line “CV+Motivation letter”. Please note that your application cannot be evaluated without these two attachments.

Application deadline is June 26, 2025.

Course Instructors: The course instructors are drawn from different universities and research centres across Europe, including the UK, Netherlands, and Sweden. Details to be provided.

Prerequisites: The course is specifically aimed at PhD students within social sciences, in particular economics. Knowledge in basic microeconomics (preferably at the Master’s level and beyond) and good knowledge in English (spoken and written) are required for participating in the course. Prior knowledge of, and experience in, behavioural economics is useful, and so too is research interest in environmental or natural resource-related questions.

Prioritisation: Participants with greater exposure to/experience in economics, to be established either by being enrolled in an economics program or through economic course credits, will be prioritised. PhD students, specifically from SLU, will be prioritised in admission. The course is however open to all PhD students who meet the criterion outlined above. Space permitting, post-doctoral researchers (early career researchers broadly) working in behavioural economics are more than welcome to participate. Students enrolled in Master’s programs may be accommodated, subject to space limitations, if they fulfill all of the pre-requisites. All student participants are required to take the course for credit.

Participant Seminars: Participant activities are an important part of the course. These may involve presentation of their own research or related work, presenting papers chosen from the reading list etc.

Content and Implementation

The course includes a blend of lectures, group discussions, practical exercises, and home-assignments.

Behavioral Economics attempts to increase the explanatory power of economic models by incorporating a better understanding of human behavior and its underlying factors into existing economic frameworks. The knowledge provided within this course is important for a wide range of users, including researchers, future managers, analysts, and consultants and policy makers, since it can help understand and account for how individuals (customers, competitors, colleagues, and themselves) and groups make decisions regarding the environmental and natural resource-related issues. This course introduces the tools and perspective from a behavioural and experimental economics perspective and discusses how these tools may be applied to the relevant problems.

The course begins with a self-study period of course material, continues with an intensive week of lectures in person (and some online) and is finalized with an individual essay and a take-home exam, which will be graded. During the pre-lecture period, students will work on also preparing their presentations and during the lecture they will present to get feedback about their work from the lecturers and the other students. The course meetings consist of five days in person, with an online session scheduled later on if needed, each of which includes lectures and/or student seminars.  The format of the seminars will be detailed closer to the course commencement.

Examination

The post-lecture period includes a take home-exam and a discussion essay (2000 words). For Master’s students, if accepted, the discussion essay is not required.

Formats and requirements for examination

Passed take-home task, passed seminar and participation in all course activities (including all in-person/online sessions) is a requirement to receive a passing grade: (i) All participants will give a seminar during the course meeting period, while PhD and Master’s students will write a take-home exam. (ii) PhD students will also be asked to write a 2000 words discussion essay to pass the course and receive course credits.

Estimated workload

Total time is 200 hours divided between:

• 20 hour of lecture
• 10 hour of seminar
• 170 hour of independent work (take home exam and individual essay)

Other information

The Department of Forest Economics reserves the right to cancel the course if there are not more than 5 students who have applied and are accepted to the course.

There is no tuition fee for participating in the course. Students are expected to cover their own costs of travel, accommodation and any miscellaneous expenses.

For any questions related to application and course details, please contact phd-economics@slu.se 

Course Organiser: Dr. Chandra Krishnamurthy