Nicolas Koch is head of the Policy Evaluation Lab at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC).

He is an environmental economist drawing from the fields of urban and transportation economics, health economics, and applied microeconomics in general. His research combines methodologies for causal impact and welfare analysis with the power of big data to improve public policy making on pressing environmental policy challenges. Specific areas in which he conducted research include the workings of the EU Emissions Trading System, the costs of air pollution, road pricing, the nexus of firm productivity & the environment, and forest conservation policies.

He completed his PhD at the University of Hamburg. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of East Anglia, and a visiting lecturer at BEM Bordeaux Management School. Nicolas has published articles in, amongst others, Nature Climate Change, Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Review of Environmental Economics & Policy, and Energy Economics.

Nicolas Koch joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2020.