About us

Vision UEC: Just and Sustainable Societies

More than half of the world population is living in urban areas. And this number is still growing, in particular in the Global South. More than ever, urbanites dominate our societies and as such the Anthropocene impacts on our global ecosystem. Furthermore, with urbanization, generally, also come increasing economical, social and environmental inequalities, both inside the city and between cities and countryside_^[1].

To reach a just and sustainable society, cities can be used as leverage points of change, innovation and adaptation when focusing both on the wellbeing of their own population, as well as those elsewhere and those to come. Their high density and social cohesion, the (often) compact lay-out and relatively homogenous socio-spatial environment (compared to the national level) potentially allow strategic and visionary local governments to make a difference and become global leaders.

Mission UEC: To get the best out of Cities

Cities can be best described as complex (adaptive) systems with a high concentration of people in a human-made environment of physical and social structures. This environment steers and impacts the behaviour of the citizens, but vice-versa, the behaviour of the citizens also impacts the (urban) environment. Not only locally, but also the physical and social environment at the regional, national, and even global scale.

Strategy UEC: combining spatial and behavioural economics

To get the best out of cities, at UEC, we study the link between place, behaviour and environment, both inside the city and between urban and rural areas. How does the physical and social environment allow or constrain people to be more energy efficient, to insulate their homes, use electric (shared) vehicles, invest in solar panels, and how does this affect inequality in terms of energy poverty? How do individual and collective food strategies impact health, resilience and food security at different spatial scales across the world? We focus on three themes: the energy transition, circular food systems and health & wellbeing

We are an interdisciplinary group: we use insights from urban, regional, and behavioral economics to improve the understanding of consumer and household decision making concerning sustainability, health & well-being and the systemic impacts at the individual, urban and regional level. In addition, we aim to contribute to new economic thinking and bring in concepts and approaches from heterodox economic streams like ecological, wellbeing and feminist economics.

Furthermore, we link micro- to macro insights by using a wide range of methodologies from (behavioral) experiments, to surveys, spatial econometrics, simulations and agent-based models.