Patrick Widuch (b. 1993) is being awarded this year's Anders Wall Scholarship in collaboration with SSE Business Lab. The scholarship amount is 200,000 SEK.

A recent report by Rickard Sandberg, Head of the Center for Data Analytics, investigates the effects of wind and temperature on electricity prices across Sweden, revealing that wind conditions significantly influence price volatility. Published in January 2024 by Energiforsk, it highlights the growing impact of wind power on the electricity market's dynamics.

SITE and FREE Network researchers delve into Europe's rising fuel costs, post-geopolitical shifts. Focused on gasoline and diesel prices, the study assesses household impacts, advocating nuanced policy responses to address economic challenges in the wake of global energy crises.

In a landmark move amid energy volatility, the EU adopts AggregateEU for joint gas procurement. This brief, written by SITE researchers Chloé Le Coq and Elena Paltseva, evaluates challenges in gas market dynamics following the energy crisis, addressing design issues of this innovative mechanism.

Throughout 2022, the reduction in Russian gas imports to the EU and the resilience of European energy markets have been subject of significant public discourse and policy-making. Of particular concern has been the EU’s ability to maintain its environmental goals. In this policy brief, researchers from SITE and the University of Pennsylvania aim to reevaluate the consequences from the loss of Russian gas and the EU’s response to it on greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

Against the background of fast rising gasoline and diesel prices in 2022, a number of European countries have reduced fuel tax rates, often in the form of temporary “gas tax holidays”. In this policy brief, SITE researchers Julius Andersson and Celina Tippmann, analyse the tax incidence by comparing the gasoline price development in Sweden to that in Denmark, where the fuel tax rate remained unchanged.

The concern of Russian gas supply disruption and its implications has never been as serious. Chloé Le Coq, Professor at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (CRED) and a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), discusses how nudging energy consumers to lower their demand may support the plans of the European Commission (EC).

SITE and NES (New Economic School) researchers investigate how multinational firms manage their relationships with governments under the threat of expropriation. Exploring micro data from the oil and gas industry worldwide, they show that the multinationals delay investment, production and tax payments by more than five years in countries with weak institutions relative to countries with strong ones. These findings are consistent with the theory suggesting that delaying rents to the government in absence of formal enforcement could decrease the risk of expropriation.

Policymakers in Europe are currently faced with the difficult task of reducing our reliance on Russian oil and gas without worsening the situation for firms and households that are struggling with high energy prices. The two options available are either to substitute fossil fuel imports from Russia with imports from other countries and cut energy tax rates to reduce the impacts on firms and household budgets, or to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels entirely by investing heavily in low-carbon energy production.

"Carbon Taxes and CO2 Emissions: Sweden as a Case Study" written by Julius Andersson, Assistant Professor at Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), has won the 2022 AEJ: Economic Policy Best Paper Award.