Lucas Bretschger

Lucas Bretschger is Full Professor of Economics/Resource Economics at the CER-ETH Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich in the department of Management, Technology and Economics (MTEC).

He was born on 12 August 1958 in Zurich and studied economics at the University of Zurich. After working as a financial analyst and as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Empirical Research in Economics (IEW) he received his doctorate at the University of Zurich in 1988. After spending one year at Princeton University he earned a venia legendi at the University of Zurich. Between 1994 and 1998 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Universities of Konstanz, La Paz, and Greifswald, where he was elected a full Professor of Economics in 1999. Since 2003 he is full Professor at the ETH Zurich and head of the resource economics group. From 2005 to 2007 he was head of the department MTEC.

Lucas Bretschger `s main research interests are in dynamic economic theory, especially resource economics and innovation models, with focus on the substitution of natural resources in multi-sector endogenous growth models. Moreover, his research is mainly concerned with the global economic interdependencies, the spatial distribution of economic activities, and general macroeconomic theory. By the integration of resource scarcity and pollution into modern growth theory, the results of his research contribute to the formulation of strategies on how to achieve sustainable development in the long run.

Bretschger has published many articles in international journals and is the author of several economic textbooks. Two of his papers have been awarded by the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics and the Swiss Society for Business Cycle Research. In addition, he has directed various applied studies on environmental issues and the competitiveness of industry locations. He was also awarded the title of Professor at the University of Zurich and is a member of the commissions for trade theory and for environmental and resource economics of the "Verein für Socialpolitik".