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Administrative data

Philippe Thalmann

philippe.thalmann@epfl.ch https://leure.epfl.ch

Nationality: Swiss

EPFL ENAC IA LEURE
BP 2137 (Bâtiment BP)
Station 16
1015 Lausanne

EPFL CEN
BAC 104 (Château de Bassenges)
Station 5
CH-1015 Lausanne

Expertise

Environmental economics
Climate economics
Economics of sustainable development
Housing economics
Real estate economics
Urban economics

Mission

Prof. Thalmann teaches real estate and housing economics to students in Architecture. He also teaches to students in engineering and sciences, mainly the economics of climate change, growth and sustainable development. Prof. Thalmann is the director of a Master of advanced studies in real estate economics, law and technology.
His current research interests are concentrated in the economics of the natural and the built environment. In the first area, he is working mainly on policy instruments to curb polluting emissions, including voluntary approaches, and on climate change economics and policy. In the second area, he is working on issues of the housing and the real estate markets, such as housing policy, tenure choice, housing affordability, and real estate valuation.
Prof. Thalmann is or was president of the federal housing commission, member of the federal consulting commission for environmental research, of the consultative organ on climate change OcCC and of the "Forum for climate and global change ProClim" of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, of the steering committee of National research programme NRP 66 "Strategies and technologies for the optimal valorisation of wood", of the expert panel of the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER) and of numerous other bodies and organisations. For a more detailled list, see the French version of this page.

Media presence

Born in Lausanne in 1963, of Lucerne origin and bilingual. He studied economics at the University of Lausanne, graduating with a degree in 1984 and a postgraduate diploma in 1986. He enrolled in MSc and doctoral program in economics at Harvard University in 1986 and obtained his PhD in 1990. After teaching at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, he was appointed Associate Professor of Economics at EPFL in 1994. His teaching and research activities cover the natural environment (environmental economics, climate economics, sustainable development economics) and the built environment (construction, real estate and housing economics). He heads the Laboratory of Urban and Environmental Economics (LEURE), which is attached to the Natural, Architectural and Built Environment Faculty (ENAC) of EPFL.

Selected publications

Hedonic Methods in Housing Markets. Pricing Environmental Amenities and Segregation

Andrea, Baranzini, Jos� V. Ramirez, Caroline Schaerer and Philippe Thalmann (eds)
Published in Springer, 2008 in

Voluntary Approaches in Climate Policy

Andrea Baranzini and Philippe Thalmann (eds)
Published in Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA, USA, 2004 in

Construction and Real Estate Dynamics

Philippe Thalmann and Milad Zarin-Nejadan (eds)
Published in Palgrave Macmillan for Applied Econometrics Association, Basingstoke, UK, 2003 in

La Politique du Logement

St�phane Cuennet, Philippe Favarger et Philippe Thalmann
Published in Collection Le Savoir Suisse, Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne, 2002 in

Locataire ou Propri�taire? Enjeux et Mythes de l'Accession � la Propri�t� en Suisse

Philippe Thalmann et Philippe Favarger
Published in Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne, 2002 in

Imp�ts Ecologiques. L'Exemple des Taxes CO2

Philippe Thalmann
Published in Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne, 1997 in

Répertoire complet

Research

Information

Please check the web pages of my lab

Teaching & PhD

PhD Students

Abdurahman Alsulaiman, Agathe Crosnier

Past EPFL PhD Students

Antoine Wasserfallen, Nicholas Bornstein, Camille Gonseth, Marco Salvi, Caroline Schaerer, Matthieu Dulguerov, André Sceia, Ronal Gainza Carmenates, Alexandra Quandt, Cecilia Matasci, Huanqing Li, Anne-Kathrin Faust, Gianluca Menghini, Anna Kounina Massé, Philippe Bélanger, Sophie Maire, Michael Robert Doyle, Boris Thurm, Takafumi Usui, Barbara Franziska Weilenmann, Margarita Agriantoni, Michel Zimmermann, Linda Melina Tesauro, Sergey Arzoyan, Sascha Nick, Adam Robert Swietek, Fleance Cocker

Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector

Pierrick Maire, Virginie Silberstein

Courses

Climate change B: causes, impacts, challenges

HUM-121(b)

The course deepens global climate-related issues: the climate system; the impacts of climate change; justice issues and governance; climate objectives and policies. The interdisciplinary approach introduces group work and scientific methodology.

Economic growth and sustainability I

HUM-471

This course examines growth from various angles: economic growth, growth in the use of resources, need for growth, limits to growth, sustainable growth, population growth. Although grounded in economics, it takes up elements from many other disciplines.

Economic growth and sustainability II

HUM-470

In this seminar, students work in groups to prepare a report illustrating material taught in the first semester. Specifically, the groups will choose a significant environmental impact or resource use, and apply decomposition analysis to understand the role of the underlying drivers.

Energy supply, economics and transition

ENG-410

This course examines energy systems from various angles: available resources, how they can be combined or substituted, their private and social costs, whether they can meet the energy demand, and how the transition to a renewable energy system can be fostered.

Environmental economics

ENV-471

Introduction to economic analysis applied to environmental issues: all the necessary basic concepts, including cost-benefit analysis, for environmental policy making and its instruments (examples: climate, waste, mobility). Introduction to financial calculation applied to project evaluation.

Land and real estate economics

AR-491

This MOOC-based course prepares students to analyse the economic context of construction projects: land acquisition, land prices, property prices, housing prices (rental and ownership), in an urban setting. By the end of the course, students will understand the determinants of these prices.

Wellbeing and Planetary Boundaries

HUM-226

This course builds on the foundations of ENV-101 to deepen understanding and implementation of sustainability: how to transform society toward wellbeing for all within ecological limits, with sectoral approaches and solutions (energy, buildings, ground mobility, aviation).