Torben K. Mideksa

Climate Change and Residential Electricity Demand in Europe

Temperature influences our notion of comfort and thus the ways we equip, heat, and cool our homes in part reflect this. This paper views electricity use in part as a phenomenon of adaptation to changes in weather and provides estimates of climate change impacts on electricity consumption in Europe. Constructing a data set on weather across a panel of European countries, we employ a concept of comfort which relates electricity consumption to outdoor temperatures, to estimate the parameters of electricity demand. The results suggest that random weather variations have a statistically significant impact on residential electricity demand. With climatic changes, Northern Europeans will reduce their heating demand and Southern Europeans will increase their cooling demand. On average, the results suggest that climate change will reduce European energy demand. But the magnitude of this net benefit is small, and likely less important than other changes such as income.

Air Pollution and Congestion in Bangkok: Developing Analytical Tools, and Implications

In a congested city with air pollution like Bangkok, there are gains to analyzing and addressing them in coordination. Higher speed, tremendously valuable in itself for firms and households, also reduce the costs of air quality improvements.

Letter: Why Urgent Emissions Reductions are Needed

Steffen Kallbekken and Torben K. Mideksa explain why economic analysis may demand sharp emissions reductions today rather than the gradual path recommended by Sheila Olmstead and Robert Stavins.