Edwin Woerdman

Edwin Woerdman is Professor of Markets and Regulation at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen. He is a political scientist teaching economics to law students. Woerdman teaches and coordinates several courses, including economics of regulation and climate law. He is also co-director of the Groningen Centre of Energy Law and Sustainability (GCELS).

Both in his interdisciplinary research and teaching, Woerdman focuses on the efficiency of market regulation. Climate change is his main research topic. He has specialized in energy and carbon market regulation, concentrating on the legal design of emissions trading and other tradable rights. Hybrid instruments and regulatory failure are two recurring themes in his work. He mainly takes an institutional law and economics approach to study (in)efficiencies in market regulation.

When combining theoretical with empirical research, Woerdman mostly uses qualitative empirical research methods, for instance based on informal cost-benefit analysis (CBA), although he has also contributed to some experimental research.

Empirical key publications:
Woerdman, E. and J.W. Bolderdijk (2017), ‘Emissions Trading for Households? A Behavioral Law and Economics Perspective’, European Journal of Law and Economics 44 (3), 553–578.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-015-9516-x

Jong, T. and E. Woerdman (2016), ‘European Energy Regulators: An Empirical Analysis of Legal Competences’, Competition and Regulation in Network Industries17(1), 2-31.
https://doi.org/10.1177/178359171601700101