Dsolve represented at Nordic Annual Environmental and Resource Economics (NAERE) Workshop
The 2025 Nordic Annual Environmental and Resource Economics (NAERE) Workshop took place on June 25-26, 2025, at DTU - Technical University of Denmark. This annual event brings together researchers and PhD students from the Nordic countries, as well as those affiliated with them, to discuss environmental and resource economics topics. Over the years, the workshop has expanded to attract participants from around the world, with previous editions held in Bergen, Copenhagen, and Uppsala. The NAERE workshop serves as an excellent platform for sharing knowledge, fostering collaboration, and exploring the latest developments in the field.
The following presentations were held by Dsolve PhD students Huu-Luat Do and Erik Johannesen Bakke:
"The Norwegian Traffic Light System’s Impact on Non-Point Source Pollution" – Erik Johannesen Bakke
Summary: Norwegian aquaculture management and non-point source pollution written together with his supervisors, Thuy Thi Thanh Pham and Claire W. Armstrong. The paper examines the effect of the Norwegian traffic light system, an ambient regulation scheme using the mortality of wild salmon smolts as an environmental indicator, combined with a collective penalty-reward incentive system to regulate non-point source pollution of salmon lice from Norwegian ocean farms. The result of the paper indicates that an ambient regulation scheme has the potential to be effective when regulating non-point source pollution. However, in the traffic light system systems case, there are several limiting factors that weakens the regulation systems effect such as a weak penalty-reward incentive scheme, a limited perceived relationship between individual pollution and the environmental indicator, as well as the risk of moral hazard. The results from studying the Norwegian traffic light system provide an example of what works, and what does not, if we should consider a future regulation scheme regarding non-point source pollution of plastics and microplastics.
"Refundable Deposits and the Adoption of Biodegradable Fishing Gear: An Experimental Investigation" – Huu-Luat Do
Summary: The research, in collaboration with co-authors from the University of Wyoming and Appalachian State University, examined how deposit-refund systems, applied to biodegradable fishing gear, influence voluntary adoption. A lab experiment simulating heterogeneous fishers showed that unequal deposits significantly increase compliance with adoption, but stronger enforcement mechanisms reduce participation and agreement size for adoption purposes. This highlights the trade-off between participation and enforcement—stronger enforcement mechanisms reduce agreement size but improve adoption.
