Wouter Botzen
Researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University, Amsterdam

wouter.botzen@ivm.vu.nl
Web Page

Short Bio
Wouter Botzen works at the Department of Environmental Economics, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Wouter has been visiting researcher at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland (USA) and at ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. After his studies he was employed as a lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, where he obtained his master degree in economics. Wouter Botzen works on a project about financial arrangements for disaster losses under climate change. This research aims at identifying and evaluating insurance arrangements for damage caused by extreme weather events, such as flooding. It assesses how insurance can be made complementary to water management policy and how risks can be distributed across the public and private sectors. Demand (WTP) for insurance against low-probability, high-impact risks is estimated. Moreover, potential effects of climate change on the insurance sector are examined.

Research Interests: catastrophe insurance, choice modelling and contingent valuation, decision-making under risk, economics of climate change.

Selected Publication:

Botzen, W.J.W. & van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. (2009). Bounded rationality, climate risks and insurance: Is there a market for natural disasters? Land Economics, 85 (2): 266-279.

Julian Garcia
PhD Student, Faculty of Economics VU University Amsterdam

j.garcia@feweb.vu.nl

Short Bio
Julian Garcia is affiliated with the Department of Spatial Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam; and with the Centre for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision-making at the University of Amsterdam. Julian has visited ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin. Julian holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the National University of Colombia, where he also did research in Evolutionary Dynamics and Artificial Intelligence. Julian works on a project about the Evolution of social preferences and the role of groups under the supervision of prof. Jeroen van den Bergh. This research aims at contributing to the theories of Group and Multilevel selection and their role in the evolution of human cooperation. Julian's project is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Research Interests: Human behaviour and Evolution, Computational Models of Evolution, Behavioural Economics, Artificial Intelligence and Evolutionary Computation.

Selected Publication:

Garcia , J. & van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. (2009). Evolution of parochialism by multi-level selection. Submitted.

María Cristina Vallejo
Doctoral candidate and associated researcher at the
Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. FLACSO-Ecuador

mcvallejo@flacso.org.ec

Short Bio
Maria Cristina Vallejo is a researcher working on ecological economics and development economics. Mainly interested in the analysis of the biophysical scale of the economies, her doctoral research, under supervision of Professor Joan Martinez-Alier, examines the Andean Region from the material flow accounts perspective. She has also participated in other Latin American research using material flow accounts. She is a Doctoral candidate in Development Economics of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences – FLACSO Ecuador. She obtained her Master degree in 2005 in the same institution. Her Bachelors degree in Economics was obtained in the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador.

Research Interests:social metabolism, ecologically unequal exchange, underdevelopment.

Selected Publication:

Vallejo, María Cristina. Estructura biofísica de la economía ecuatoriana: Los flujos directos de materiales. Revista Iberoamericana de Economía Ecológica (REVIBEC), Vol. 4: 55-72, 2006.

Mario Coscarello 
PhD Student, Departmentof Sociology and Political Science, University of Calabria

mario.coscarello@unical.it

http://polaris.unical.it/user/report/visualizzacurriculum.php3?IDutente=105592

Short Bio

Mario Coscarello is Phd student in Knowledge and Innovation School for Development "Andre Gunder Frank", Department of Sociology and Political Science, University of Calabria. He studied in the same institution, where he obtained his degree in Political Science. Also he studied Economic Disciplines for the development and cooperation. He collaborated with SVIMEZ – Associazione per lo sviluppo industriale, and with Local Agency Development (GAL) - Local Action Group – for the implementation of the Rural Development Plan 2007-2013 in Calabria. Mario Coscarello is affiliated with the Centre Study and Research for the Rural Development in Department of Sociology and Political Science, University of Calabria.

Actually, he works with a team researching of the National Institute of Agricultural Economics (INEA) and heworks on research project about Alternative Network Food (AFN).

Research Interests:

Rural and Local development, Economic Solidarity, Sustainable Development, Public goods.