Prof. Dr. Jan Steckel heads the working group "Political Economy" at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He is also a professor for the political economy of climate change at the Technical University of Munich. Jan is author of multiple academic and non academic publications focusing on climate policy and economics, inter alia on the political economy of energy transitions, distributional effects of carbon pricing policies or acceptabiltiy of climate policy. He has contributed to various IPCC reports and led a chapter on the international coal phase out in UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2017. Jan has advised governments and international organizations, such as IMF or World Bank, and NGOs. Jan co-leads the Climate Policy for Development Initiative hosted by EfD.
Contact
14412 Potsdam
ORCID
CERES - Political Economy for Inclusive Wealth Governance and Sustainability. Funded by Werner Siemes Foundation.
AdJUST - Towards a just energy transition. Funded by the European Union.
ELEVATE - Enabling and Leveraging Climate Action Towards net-zero emissions. Funded by the European Union.
GeoClimRisk - The Geopolitics of Climate Risks. Funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office as part of the Climate Diplomacy Action Programme (CDAP)
TRANSFORM - Research for evidence-based climate policy through agricultural and food systems transformation, financing preservation of forest sinks and a just transition of the economy. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
EVIDENCE - Evidence-based research on climate policy reforms for policy-based lending in low- and middle-income countries. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
I currently (summer term 2026) teach a seminar on the distributional effects of climate policy at TU Munich.
Please find a selection of my ongoing research work. For a list of published papers please refer to my google scholar or orcid profile.
Political Economy & distributional effects
- The heterogenous effects of climate policy on households: Evidence from 88 countries. Accepted for publication. With Leonard Missbach. Working paper.
- How political attitudes change with energy prices. Evidence from Germany. With Théo Konc, Jacob Edenhofer, Thomas Sterner and Jens Ewald. Working paper available on request.
- The political economy of carbon taxation: a systematic review of the case study literature. With Franziska Klein and Niklas Kramer. Working Paper available on request.
- Burden your neighbor? Distributional effects of the EU CBAM on EU trading partners. With Timothé Beaufils, Johannes Gallé, Michael Jakob, Matthias Kalkuhl and Joschka Wanner. Working Paper available on request
- A Political Backlash to Job Losses in Mining? The Case of Colombia. With Charlotte Bez and Lennard Naumann. Working paper available on request.
- What Drives Public Backlash to Climate Policy? The Case of the German Heating Reform. With Niklas Kramer and Théo Konc. Working paper available on request.
- Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies with Citizens' Approval: The Case of Colombia. With Charlotte S. Bez, Jorge Bonilla, Brigitte Castaneda Rodriguez, Jorge García, Leonard Missbach & Farah Mohammadzadeh Valencia. Working Paper.
Just energy transitions & coal phase out:
- The Economics of a Just Transition. With Ireri Hernandez Carballo, Elena Verdolini, Massimo Tavoni and Francesco Vona. Accepted for publication. Working paper.
- Coal fired power plants and industrial development. Evidence from Indonesia. With Leonard Missbach, Sebastian Kraus & Sebastian Renner. Working paper.
- Not Just a Transition. Evaluating the Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa using stock market data. With Samson Mukanjari, Thomas Sterner and Dambala Gelo. Working paper available on request.
Sustainable development trade-offs
- Negative health effects of a carbon price can outweigh the climate benefits in developing countries. With Raavi Aggarwal, Leonard Missbach, E. Somanathan & Thomas Sterner. Working paper.
