Professor Frans de Vries

Biography

Frans P. de Vries is a professor at the University of Aberdeen Business School and the Department of Economics where he holds the Chair in Environmental and Resource Economics. He is a member of the Scottish Experimental Economics Laboratory (SEEL), the Aberdeen Centre for Research in Energy Economics and Finance (ACREEF), and an affiliate of the North Atlantic Microplastic Centre (NAMC) in Norway.

Professor De Vries’s research is centred around the design and functioning of environmental markets and incentive-based policy mechanisms for pollution control and biodiversity conservation. Another focal point of his research relates to the interplay between environmental regulation, market structure and technological change. Across these domains, his research has been published in the European Economic Review and leading field journals, including the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Energy Economics.

Professor De Vries received an MSc from Wageningen University in 1996 and a PhD from the University of Groningen in 2003. He joined the University of Aberdeen in 2021 and previously has held academic positions at the University of Stirling in Scotland (2007-2021), and the Universities of Groningen (2004-2007) and Tilburg (2002-2004) in the Netherlands. He has been a visiting scholar at Purdue University, Indiana University, Syracuse University, the Australian National University, the University of Victoria, and a visiting professor at the University of Waikato (New Zealand) and Luleå University of Technology (Sweden). He has also consulted for the OECD (Environment Directorate), the UK and Irish Environment Agencies, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and the European Patent Office.

Research Overview

Environmental Economics
Environmental Policy and Technological Change
Industrial Organisation
Applied Game Theory

Current Research

Clear Skies: Multi-Pollutant Climate Policy in the Presence of Global Dimming

with Matthew McGinty

Abstract:  Multi-pollutant interactions can have crucial implications for the design and performance of environmental policy targeting single pollutants. This paper presents a two-region model where a global pollutant (CO₂) and local pollutant (SO₂) are produced jointly. The interaction between SO₂ and CO₂ gives rise to the global dimming effect, which relates SO₂ emissions to the environmental damage caused by CO₂ emissions. We analyze climate policy by comparing abatement of these pollutants in the presence and absence of the dimming effect. We then draw implications for the design of international climate agreements, which should reflect the interactive nature between pollutants. The paper also illustrates how a market-based policy in the form of emissions taxes can be embedded into climate agreements to facilitate an efficient coordination of multi-pollutant abatement across regions. Our model predicts that this involves a uniform tax on the global pollutant but differentiated (region-specific) taxes on the local pollutant.

Past Research

Selected Publications

R.J. Johnston, T. Börger, N. Hanley, K. Meginnis, T. Ndebele, G.E.A. Siyal & F.P. de Vries (2024), Consequences of Emitting Non-Lethal Wildlife Impacts from Stated Preference Scenarios, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 126, 103011.

Börger, T., N. Hanley, R.J. Johnston, K. Meginnis, T. Ndebele, G.E.A. Siyal & F.P. de Vries (2024), Equity Preferences and Abatement Cost Sharing in International Environmental Agreements, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 106, pp. 416-441.

Cason, T.N., J.K. Stranlund & F.P. de Vries (2023), Investment Incentives in Tradable Emissions Markets with Price Floors, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 10, pp. 283-314.

Banerjee, S., T.N. Cason, F.P. de Vries & N. Hanley (2021), Spatial Coordination and Joint Bidding in Conservation Auctions, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 8, pp. 1013-1049.

Banerjee, S., T.N. Cason, F.P. de Vries & N. Hanley (2017), Transaction Costs, Communication and Spatial Coordination in Payment for Ecosystem Services Schemes, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 83, pp. 68-89.

Banerjee, S., F.P. de Vries, N. Hanley & D.P. van Soest (2014), The Impact of Information Provision on Agglomeration Bonus Performance: An Experimental Study on Local Networks, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 96, pp. 1009-1029.

Dekker, T., H.R.J. Vollebergh, F.P. de Vries & C.A. Withagen (2012), Inciting Protocols, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 64, pp. 45-67.

Dijkstra, B.R. & F.P de Vries (2006), Location Choice by Households and Polluting Firms: An Evolutionary Approach, European Economic Review 50, pp. 425-446.

Funding and Grants

Current Grants

• The Economics of Marine Plastic Pollution: What are the Benefits of International Cooperation? - Principal Investigator, ESRC-funded project (June 2019 - April 2023)