Sebastian Rausch Joins ZEW as Head of the Environmental Research Department

On 1 August 2020, the renowned environmental and energy economist Professor Sebastian Rausch took up his position as head of the Research Department “Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management” at ZEW Mannheim. “As head of the research department, I look forward to enhancing my research on the design of emissions and energy markets and to contributing to the climate and economic policy debate with my findings,” says Sebastian Rausch.

“In recent years, public awareness of how important environmental quality is for social and economic well-being has grown tremendously, not least due to the global climate debate. ZEW Mannheim and the distinguished economics departments of the universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim provide an ideal setting to investigate politically and socially relevant questions on the key environmental economic challenges of our time.”

ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach comments on the new appointment: “I am delighted that we have gained such an internationally renowned environmental and energy economist as Sebastian Rausch as head of our environmental research department. This will strengthen our competencies in the area of applied research on climate change and energy policy at this crucial time. With Sebastian Rausch as department head, ZEW will be able to expand its research activities in this area and contribute to the current debate with relevant findings.”

Sebastian Rausch’s research interests lie in the field of environmental and energy economics. His current work focuses on the economic modelling of emissions and energy markets with the aim of conducting ex-ante evaluations of climate and energy policies.

Sebastian Rausch studied economics at the University of Bonn. After obtaining his PhD at the Ruhr Graduate School in economics and the University of Duisburg-Essen, he worked as a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) within the framework of the MIT Energy Initiative and Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Before joining ZEW, Rausch was an assistant professor in the area of energy economics at ETH Zurich. Sebastian Rausch accepted the joint appointment of ZEW and Heidelberg University, where he took over a professorship in environmental, energy, and resource economics.