Promotie R.V. Jaimes Bonilla

This dissertation covers topics in the fields of macroeconomics and environmental economics. Using both theoretical and empirical methods, it focuses on the effects of population aging, climate change, and natural resource use on economic growth and the setting of optimal fiscal and climate policies. Specifically, the second chapter shows that optimal climate policies must be adjusted when there are other intertemporal distortions in the economy, for instance, capital income taxes. The third chapter derives a simple formula for the social costs of carbon and proposes a time-varying social discount factor that allows climate policies to reflect demographic trends. The fourth chapter explores the effects of energy innovation and policy on economic growth rates within the US. The last chapter analyzes optimal fiscal policies in an economy with endogenous retirement and demographic change.

Richard Jaimes (Bogotá, Colombia, 1987) obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universidad Externado de Colombia in 2009; his Master’s degree in Economics from the Universidad de Los Andes in 2013; and his Research Master’s degree in Economic Analysis from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2016. Since then, he has been a Ph.D. student in Economics at Tilburg University. He was a recognised student over the Trinity Term 2019 at the University of Oxford. In the fall 2020 semester, he will join the Department of Economics at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana as an Assistant Professor.

• Locatie: Cobbenhagen building, Aula 
• Promotor: prof. dr. R. Gerlagh
• Copromotor: dr. E.W.M.T. Westerhout