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I am a PhD student at the London School of Economics within the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment .
I have previously studied Environmental Economics at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute and Economics at Brandeis University.
PhD research topic
Individuals' understanding and estimation of climate change-related risks.
I have a specific interest in the use of heuristics in individuals' development of climate change-related risk perceptions and related actions.
Other research interests
  • Long-term discounting, risk/disaster management, ethics within environmental economics, micro-insurance/micro-franchise.
Selected Publications
  • "Environmental economics and global climate change" in the Encyclopedia of Global Warming, Salem Press . (December 2009)
  • "Siblings, Not Triplets: Social Preferences for Risk, Inequality, and Time in Discounting Climate Change." Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Vol. 3, 2009-26. 
Supervision & Support
  • I am supervised by Dr. Simon Dietz.
  • I am chiefly funded by the Grantham Institute PhD Scholarship, with additional funding from the U.S.A. National Science Foundation.
Selected Professional Activities
I currently hold the position of Economist in the Office of Applied Economics, Building & Fire Research Lab at the National Institute of Standards & Technology, U.S.A.
Click HERE for more information on my work and publications there.

Since April 2010, I have been a consulting economist for the Grameen Foundation.

I am also Co-director of the Environment and Economy Group and laison to the UNFCCC for the Caux Human Security Forum.
I write for Climatico which offers an independent analysis of climate change policy worldwide.
I also am a scientific committee member for the Integrated Risk Governance Project.
Teaching
I am a Graduate Teaching Assistant on GY240: Research Techniques (Spatial, Social and Environmental) and
GY323: Environmental Assessment and Management in the Geography Department, LSE
Contact me
Email : j.helgeson@lse.ac.uk or write to the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE.
Last updated: October 2010