check
Research | Environmental Economics and Management

Research

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_5247_See_of_Galilee.JPG

 

Contact Us

The Department of Environmental Economics and Management

The Robert H. Smith Faculty
of Agriculture, Food and Environment
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Herzl 229, Rehovot 7610001
Fax: 08-9466267

Department Head:
Dr. Ohad Raveh, Tel: 08-9489373

Head of the teaching program:
Dr. Ohad Raveh, Tel: 08-9489373

Secretary: 
Miri Arazi, Tel: 08-9489230


The Department provides optimal facilities and conditions for research students, including study rooms, computers and data analyzing servers, access to literature and information databases, and a laboratory for conducting behavioral choice experiments. Researchers provide scholarships based on research grants, and students regularly occupied as teaching assistances.

Below is a list of the main disciplines studied by the Department's members.

Environmental economics – Pollution as a side effect of economic activities is external to the considerations of agents in their production and consumption decisions, which therefore calls for governmental intervention policies. Research on this subject includes valuation of ecosystem services and health damage; spatial analyses of waste management; economic viability of biological pest control; optimal means for preserving biodiversity; and water reclamation and ruse and environmental regulations.

Faculty Involved: Ebenstein, Finkelshtain, Fleischer, Kan, Kimhi, Tsur

 

Natural resource economics – While renewable resources as water, wildlife and forests can be managed in a sustainable manner, optimal extraction of non-renewable resources such as oil and heavy metal deposits needs careful design of extraction across space and a long time. Researchers in the Department develop conceptual and empirical models for optimal management in the water, waste and energy sectors; estimate demand and supply of natural commodities and inputs; and assess the lobbying power of interest groups in relation to resource regulations.

Faculty Involved: Bar-Shira, Finkelshtain, Kan, Raveh, Simhon, Tsur

 

Agricultural economics – The impacts of market structure, trade policies, production technologies, and consumption behavior on the agricultural sector are immense. Studies in this field encompass examination of rural communities; agricultural effects of climate change; estimating market power of food processor, wholesalers and retailers, marketing methods of agricultural products; measurements of technological change; and perception of risk in food consumption.

Faculty Involved: Bar-Shira, Ert, Finkelshtain, Fleischer, Heiman, Kan, Simhon

 

Risk and decision-making under uncertainty – Uncertainty is incorporated in any economic decision with respect to both production and consumption. Research in this topic includes estimation of risk aversion and moral hazard; insurance mechanisms in agricultural systems; hazards associated with extraction of natural resources; social effects of risk perception and risk taking; experiential learning; risk-reducing marketing tools.

Faculty Involved: Bar-Shira, Ert, Finkelshtain, Heiman, Tsur

 

Macroeconomics and development – This discipline refers to an economy as a unit, and attempts to assess its performance based on indicators such as national income, unemployment, inflation, savings, investments, international trade, income distribution, etc. Examples of studies in this area include the assessment of links between inequality and growth; inflation and price variability; globalization effects on labor markets in developing countries; impacts of natural resource discovery in federal regimes; decomposition of inequality indices.   

Faculty Involved: Ebenstein, Kimhi, Raveh, Simhon

 

Tourism management and sharing economy – With more than 300 million jobs, the travels and tourism sector accounts for about 10% of the world GDP, where the part of the sharing-economy continuously grows. Scholars in the Department explore trust and reputation in the sharing economy; the link between agriculture, tourism and the optimal size for rural tourism villages; price premium in the online hotel market; measures of the recreational value of agricultural landscape.

Faculty Involved: Ert, Finkelshtain, Fleischer