Education

The Center for Energy Policy and Economics encompasses the chairs of 
Professors Filippini and Rutherford. The center's research and teaching activities are in applied microeconomics. Professor Filippini works in empirical models applied to regulation and production economics as well as consumer choices and economic valuation of non-market goods. Professor Rutherford is a specialist in applied economic equilibrium models for 
policy analysis.

Undergraduate and Masters Courses

Courses offered through CEPE are primarily intended to introduce ETH 
students to energy economics.  Professor Filippini teaches Principles of 
Microeconomics during the fall semester.  This is a core course for the MTEC Master program. He also teaches Empirical Methods in Energy Economics during the spring 
semester which is offered as an elective course.  Professor 
Rutherford teaches an undergraduate course in Managerial Economics and an elective (advanced undergraduate) course in Urban and Spatial Economics during the fall semester. 
The Managerial Economics course is offered through the Mechanical Engineering department (MAVt) and is intended to provide an introduction to markets, managerial decisions and the use of
optimization methods in economics. The Urban-Spatial Economics class is 
provided in collaboration with the ETH Institute for Transport Planning 
and Systems.

Professor Rutherford's spring semester course in Energy Policy and 
Economics is an elective in the MTEC MSc program. This course concerns the economic analysis of energy markets.  The course includes a term paper assignment intended to help prepare students for 
writing a masters thesis.

CEPE staff regularly teach courses in their areas of expertise.  Senior 
Researcher Mehdi Farsi teaches a course in Statistics for 
Business and Economics and a course in Industrial 
Organization. Senior Researcher Silvia Banfi Frost teaches a master-level course in Public Economics focusing on energy and environmental policy issues. This term, Dr. C. Ordás Criado introduces kernel-based smoothing techniques in a master-level course entitled Nonparametric Econometrics.

Doctoral Courses and Seminars

At the PhD level, Professor Filippini organizes a block course in 
Empirical Methods in Energy and Environmental Economics. This course is organized every other year in the Fall semester and features 
lectures by Professor Anna Alberini 
from the University of Maryland in valuation of environmental goods. 
Professor Bill Greene from New York University teaches a short course in connection with CEPE, focusing on the application of discrete choice models and stochastic frontier analysis in health economics.

Professor Rutherford teaches a PhD course in Computational 
Economics during spring semester on alternating years. This course 
focuses on economic applications of optimization and complementarity 
programming methods based on the GAMS modeling language.  On alternating years, Professor Rutherford teaches a block course in applications of economic equilibrium methods.