Economics serving society

Urban New Deal Chair

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Presentation

To further understand the dynamics of transformation of cities and territories into low-carbon, resilient and connected cities, The Caisse des Dépôts Research Institute, Enedis, PTV Group and Paris School of Economics have joined together to create the “Urban New Deal” Research Chair.

- Press release - Launch of the “Urban New Deal Chair” research chair (PDF - 333 ko)

News

Activities

Several activities are on the chair’s agenda:

Objectives

The ambition of the “Urban New Deal Chair” Research Chair is to apprehend the urban climate and energy challenges of the 21st century within a coherent analytical framework that simultaneously addresses the issues related to the digital transformation of cities as a vector of environmental transition and greater social inclusion. It aims at contributing to the public debate in France and at an international level on the conditions that facilitate the implementation of these transformations and providing decision-making support tools for city stakeholders.

Three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions and two thirds of global energy consumption come from cities, which indicates that they do play a decisive role in decarbonizing society. The chair will offer at the same time an academic and practical expertise to help analyzing and understanding the dynamics of cities (and peripheral territories including the dynamics of the 15-minute city), but also to design an optimal management of new services in the fields of mobility, energy, and housing.

These services undergo significant changes towards a more sustainable and inclusive offer with important impacts on spatial re-organization. A key issue is then to understand the dynamics of urban structures with respect to the location of households and businesses. Will these structures be naturally compatible with the desirable target in terms of environmental impact? Or, on the contrary, will society need to implement proactive public policies to reach these objectives in the areas of mobility, energy and housing?

The “Urban New Deal Chair” Research Chair will also study the effectiveness of various mechanisms mobilized around incentive pricing, but also non-pricing mechanisms, such as nudge, regulation, or taxation, in the field of mobility and energy consumption, in order to improve energy efficiency and decarbonisation in various targeted urban structures.

Different empirical methods will be proposed. In particular, Lab experiments will allow us to measure the perception and appropriation by transport users of different types of tariffs, information signals or equipment, which are supposed to promote and support changes in individual and collective behavior. These tariffs are important tools to promote and facilitate energy and environmental transition.

New sources of big data on the use and consumption of urban services, the functioning of networks (smart grids), the interactions between actors, urban sprawl, service performance, at the crossroads of the industrial economy and urban economics (econometrics, statistics, socio-economic evaluation, or case studies), will allow studying the conditions for the effectiveness of this new offer of urban services which aims at implementing the sustainable development of cities.

Chair’s holders

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Philippe Gagnepain – Professor at PSE and University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

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Carine Staropoli – Professor at PSE and senior lecturer at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Fellow Researchers

Nicolas Astier, PSE Professor, Ecole des Ponts - ParisTech Engineer
Miren Lafourcade, PSE Associate Researcher, Professor of Economics, University of Paris-Saclay
Ariane Dupont Kieffer, Senior Lecturer and, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility at University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Steering Committee

To coordinate its work, the chair has set up a steering committee made up of the Chair’s holders : Carine Staropoli, Philippe Gagnepain and Jean-Olivier Hairault (Director of PSE) and partners’ representatives : Isabelle Laudier (Director of the Caisse des Dépôts Research Institute), Dominique Lagarde (Director of Strategy, Enedis and Pierre Mallet, Director R&D Innovation and Christian U. Haas, CEO of PTV Group.

Partners PSE

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The Caisse des Dépôts Research Institute supports research projects that fall within the scope of Caisse des Dépôts’ missions and activities. Its role is to encourage research in fields linked to the activities of Caisse des Dépôts, on various issues such as saving, long-term finance, economic development of local and regional areas, energy and ecological transition, impact of ageing, etc.

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Enedis is an independent subsidiary of EDF group. As a public company, Enedis manages the public electricity distribution network over 95% of mainland France, guaranteeing access to this network to electricity suppliers. Created in 2008 under the name ERDF, ENEDIS adopted its current name in 2016, as the contraction between “energy” and “distribution”.
Enedis carries out customer connections, 24/7 troubleshooting, meter reading and all technical interventions. Working on behalf of local authorities, owners of the networks, it is independent of energy suppliers who are responsible for selling and managing the electricity supply contract.

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PTV Group provides software solutions and consulting services to enhance mobility and transportation for a cleaner and smarter future. Its software for intelligent traffic management and transport optimization enables decision-makers in politics, cities, industry, and trade save time and money, make roads safer, and protect the environment. The company was established in 1979 in Karlsruhe, Germany, as spin-off from Karlsruhe university of Technology (KIT).