Background and experience
Magnus Aagaard Skeie holds a PhD from the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder, within the field of Economics. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Oslo (2017), as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Theology and Leadership from the Norwegian School of Leadership and Theology (2015). Magnus is employed as a Senior Adviser in Economics at the Norwegian Coastal Administration.
Magnus has extensive experience in economics from both the private and public sectors. He has given numerous public lectures and recently participated in the national Researcher Grand Prix competition, where he was awarded second place. He has also contributed to the Research Fair organized by the School of Business and Law during the Norwegian Research Days.
Teaching
Magnus is course coordinator and lecturer for SE-307-1 Environmental and Resource Economics at the School of Business and Law. He has also delivered lectures in the School’s PhD programme, the Executive MBA programme, and the course ORG419 Judgement and Decision Making.
Research
Magnus’s research focuses on the valuation of environmental and natural goods. In his PhD project, he studied psychological effects in the response process of valuation studies using the contingent valuation method, employing experimental designs in large-scale online valuation surveys. This research is important because small changes in key survey design elements can lead to substantial differences in the main outcomes of such studies—namely, the population’s average willingness to pay for specific environmental and conservation measures. These monetary values are widely used in public administration, particularly in cost–benefit analyses of projects with environmental implications.
His ongoing research contributes to the environmental valuation literature both methodologically and conceptually: methodologically by demonstrating the effects of subtle survey design changes on stated preferences, and conceptually by applying the concept of choice architecture from psychology and behavioural economics to analyse behavioural effects in valuation studies.