Michael Finus

Biography

Michael Finus holds a Chair in Environmental Economics. He joined the University of Bath in 2012. He held previous appointments at the University of Exeter (2009-2011), University of Stirling (2007-2009), University of Hagen, Germany (2001-2007). He works in the field of environmental economics and public goods, in particular on international environmental agreements. He has published widely in journals such as the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Social Choice and Welfare, Public Choice, Environmental and Resource Economics and Environment and Development Economics. He also published several books such as Game Theory and International Environmental Cooperation (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2001). He is Co-Editor of Environmental and Resource Economics and has been guest editor of special issues in this journal, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and is currently editing a special issue in Oxford Economic Papers. Michael regularly serves as a referee for journals like American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Games and Economic Behavior and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. He also frequently serves on the scientific panel of the annual meetings of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He was President-elect of the German Association of Environmental Economists (2008-2010) and Past President-elect 2010-2012, and was a Lead Author of the 5th assessment report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group III, which was released in 2014. Michael was a Research Associate at the Centre for European Economic Policy Research in Mannheim (ZEW, Germany) from 2010-15.

Research Interest

Research interests Environmental Economics Public Economics Game Theory International Environmental Agreements Michael is interested in all kinds of economic problems that involve externalities (spillovers) across economic agents, where coordination and cooperation would generate global welfare gains but which typically suffer from ‘free-riding’ (i.e. not everybody is contributing its fair share). He is analysing which factors cause free-riding and how and through which measures this can be mitigated. Many of these problems relate to collective decision making and public and global governance. International and global environmental problems, like climate change and overfishing, are prominent examples.