Chandra Krishnamurthy

I am currently a  Senior Lecturer (Universitetslektor) at the Dept. of Forest Economics, SLU, Umeå. I was previously employed as a researcher at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (a research insititute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at Stockholm). My background and training has been in a combination of engineering and economics, with my PhD being in (the economics of) "Sustainable Development" at the Columbia University in New York, a program that  trained us in the use of tools of economics to address questions related to the natural world and health.

I largely work on applying the tools of economics to three broad areas relating to sustainability: improving management of natural resources; designing better electricity markets; and dealing with decarbonisation of transportation and other issues and the transportation-urban economics interface.

I am interested in many areas of environmental and resource economics. My recent work has largely centered on three broad research areas: How should renewable natural resources (e.g. fishery, groundwater) be managed under a variety of natural conditions? How can the transition to a more renewable energy system be achieved? How can public policies be designed to reduce the environmental footptint from transportation? I am also increasingly working on issues related to forest resources, including conservation contracts and empirical equilibrium models of forest products (including assessing the effects of forest damage). I am also actively involved in behavioural approaches to forest resources and managing income risk from forests and in understanding the markets for forest products.

I use both theoretical (mathematical) models and empirical (data-based statistical) methods to answer questions related to these broad directions. These are research directions rather than specific questions, and my recent papers (published and working) provide an idea of some aspects of these directions I have addressed. 

I have taught extensively in a rather broad variety of subjects at all levels, Bachelor's, Master's and PhD level, at Umeå University's Dept. of Economics and at SLU.   I have been responsible for the course (and taught it myself)  environmental economics for almost ten years (2014, 2017-2024), taught part of a resource economics course for a few years (2020-2024), for econometrics twice (2014, 2016), and microeconomics once (2013). I also  have taught a course on forest economics for about eight years (2018-2024), co-taught and co-developed a PhD level course in Macroeconomics (2023, 2025, Macroeconomics and Sustainability) and lead, helped develop and organise a regular PhD-level course on Behavioural and Environmental Economics (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2025).  I have also taught parts of the course on Forest Industry Supply Strategy (2018-2024), and a short course in R (KVA/Beijer, 2015).

PhD: Sustainable Development

Columbia University of New York

M.phil: Development Economics

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Economics (IGIDR), Mumabi, India

Bachelor: Engineering (BE, Mechanical)

Bangalore University, India

I have ongoing and past collaborations with researchers at the University of Oregon, Tel Aviv University, George Washington University, The Beijer Institute and the Stockholm Reslilience Center, Oxford Brookes University and University of Bocconi, among others. 

I was (de facto) main supervisor for Xiao Hu (graduate June 2024), have been co-supervisor for Mattias Vesterberg (2013-2017) at the Dept. of Economics at Umeå University. I have also been primary supervisor for more than five Master's students at the Dept. of Economics at Umeå University. 

I referee regularly for top field journals such as JEEM, JAERE, ERE, and REE. I have been the Director of Graduate Studies in my department for five year (2019-2023) and also have an assignment as an "Analyst" at the Swedish Forest Damage Center.

Before moving to the SLU Umeå in January 2017, I was at the Beijer Institute in August 2014 and prior to that, was a Brouwaldh Fellow at the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics and the Department of Economics at Umeå University. I came to the U.S. from India to do a PhD in Sustainable Development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and mhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17421772.2020.1784988oved to Sweden soon after its completion. 

1. Krishnamurthy, C. K. B., & Ngo, N. S. (2024). Do ride-hailing services worsen freeway congestion and air quality? Evidence from Uber’s entry in California. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 11(6), 1559-1603. [Link] 

2. Arvaniti, M., Krishnamurthy, C. K. B., & Crepin, A. S. (2023). Time-consistent renewable resource management with present bias and regime shifts. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 207. [Link]

3. Unlocking the unsustainable rice-wheat system of Indian Punjab: Assessing alternatives to crop-residue burning from a systems perspective ?(Andrea Downing et al) Ecological Economics (2022). 195. [Link]

4. Valuing biodiversity and resilience: An application to pollinator diversity in the Stockholm region. (2020) Spatial Economic Analysis. 15(3). [Link]

5. Carbon pricing and planetary boundaries. (2020). Nature Communications, 11(1), 1-11. [Link]

6. An Ecological Golden Rule.  Resource and Energy Economics (2021). 64, 10129. [Link]