17 November 2023

14:00 – 14:45

Amphithéâtre Say

Olivier Simard-Casanova

Olivier Simard-Casanova is an economist, data scientist, author and freelance speaker. He is the author of several French and English-language newsletters, including L’économiste Sceptique ‘- where he popularizes economics, scientific skepticism and environmental economics. He offers online and face-to-face training courses for the R statistical software, and does data science consulting (notably on urban mobility). He has taught economics, mathematics and statistics at the University of Strasbourg (Faculty of Economics and Management), at the University of Lorraine (Faculty of Law, Economics and Management and Ecole des Mines de Nancy) and at ESG Act! He advocates the use of human and social sciences in devising solutions to global warming.

Conference: How to analyze the cost-benefit of public environmental policies?

The current ecological crisis calls for strong responses. Many of these responses involve public policy, i.e. government intervention. And few public policies have only benefits. As with the benefit-risk balance of a treatment in medicine, cost-benefit analyses make it possible to measure the costs and benefits of a given public policy. How is a cost-benefit analysis carried out? Is it really possible to measure all the costs and benefits of an environmental public policy? How can we put a monetary value on nature? Popularizing cost-benefit analyses will provide an opportunity to explain how the human and social sciences have a decisive role to play in making the ecological transition a success.