Dr Mona Chitnis

Biography

Mona Chitnis is a Research Fellow in the multidisciplinary Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE) and Sustainable Lifestyle Research Group (SLRG).  She applies econometric techniques to model and estimate future consumer demand, associated greenhouse gas emissions and the rebound effect for the UK. 

Before joining CES in 2006, Mona worked for almost nine years in the Management and Planning Organization of the Iranian Government-Tehran as an Expert in Economics and State Planning. Her area of work covered public enterprises, privatization and financial markets issues in Iran. She also has lectured at Alzahra University in Iran-Tehran.

Mona did her BS, MS and Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Tehran in Iran. She obtained a British Council and the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran partial scholarship to complete her Ph.D. research at SEEC and completed her PhD in 2005 entitled "The Effect of Gasoline Pricing Policy on Social Welfare in Iran". Her thesis covered the cost analysis of refineries and petroleum products, gasoline demand and supply estimation and the effect of gasoline pricing policy on social welfare in Iran.

Research Interests

• Microeconomics, Energy Economics and Applied Econometrics.

Publications

• Journal papers:
• "Missing carbon reductions? Exploring rebound and backfire effects in UK households Energy Policy" (with A. Druckman, S. Sorrell and T. Jackson), Energy Policy, In press.
• "Modelling UK household expenditure: economic versus non-economic drivers" (with L. C. Hunt), Applied Economics Letters, In press, DOI 10.1080/13504851.2010.496721.
• “Asymmetric Price Responses and the Underlying Energy Demand Trend: Are they Substitutes or
  Complements? Evidence from Modelling OECD Aggregate Energy Demand” (with O. I. Adeyemi, D. C.
  Broadstock, L. C. Hunt and G. Judge) (2010), Energy Economics, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 1157-1164.
• "Gasoline Demand, Pricing Policy and Social Welfare in the Islamic Republic of Iran" (with M. Ahmadian and L. C. Hunt) (2007), OPEC Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 105-124.
• Conferences:
• “Shifting sands? Exploring rebound and backfire in a changing economy” (with A. Druckman, S. Sorrell and
  T. Jackson), 11th ISEE Biennial Conference: ‘Advancing sustainability in a time of crisis’, August 22-25,
  2010, Oldenburg and Bremen, Germany.
• “UK Household Disaggregated Energy Expenditure Demand: Contributions of Economic and Non-
  Economic Factors” (with L.C. Hunt), 32nd IAEE International Conference, “Energy, Economy, Environment:
  The Global View”, June 21-24, 2009, San Francisco, USA.
• “Predicting energy expenditure and associated GHG emissions for UK households: where will it be in
  2020?” (with A. Druckman, L. C. Hunt and T. Jackson), RESOLVE conference, “Sustainable lives? The
  challenges of low-carbon living in a changing economic climate”, 18th June 2009, London, UK.
• “Analysing The Role of Lifestyles in Determining UK Household Energy Demand and GHG Emissions:
  Predictions and Scenarios” (with A. Druckman, L. C. Hunt, T. Jackson and S. Milne), Enerday Conference
  on Energy Economics and Technology, “Long-term Energy Trends –Where will be in 2050?”, 3 April 2009,
  Dresden, Germany.
• “Structural Time Series Model Estimation of UK Household Energy Expenditure and Future CO2
  Emissions” (with L. C. Hunt), 28th USAEE/IAEE Annual North American Conference, “Unveiling the
  Future of Energy Frontiers”, December 3-5, 2008, New Orleans, LA, USA.
• “UK Household Energy Expenditure and CO2 Emissions” (with L. C. Hunt), 2nd Asian Conference of the
  International Association for Energy Economics, “Energy Security and Economic Development under
  Environmental Constraints in the Asia/Pacific region”, 5-7 November 2008, Perth, Australia.
• “Consumer Demand Estimation for Different Goods and Services”, Rethinking Consumption Symposium,
  12-13 March 2008, Wellington, New Zealand.
• “Modeling OECD aggregate energy demand: asymmetric price responses and the underlying energy demand
  trend: are they substitutes or complements?” (with O. I. Adeyemi, D. C. Broadstock and L. C. Hunt), 9th
  IAEE European Energy Conference, “Energy Markets and Sustainability in a Larger Europe”, 10-13 June
  2007, Florence, Italy.
• “The Effect of Gasoline Pricing Policy on Social Welfare in Iran.” (with L. C. Hunt and M. Ahmadian), 28th
  Annual IAEE International Conference, “Globalization of Energy: Markets, Technology, and Sustainability”,
  3-6 June 2005, Taipei, Taiwan.
• "The Effect of Gasoline Pricing Policy on Social Welfare in Iran." (With L. C. Hunt), IAEE International Conference, "Critical Infrastructure in Energy Sector", 21-22 November 2004, Prague, Czech Republic.
• Working papers:
• "An investigation into the rebound and backfire effects from abatement actions by UK households" (with A. Druckman, S. Sorrell and T. Jackson) (2010), RESOLVE Working Paper 05-10, University of Surrey, UK.
• "Contribution of economic versus non-economic drivers of UK household expenditure" (with L. C. Hunt) (2010), RESOLVE Working Paper 03-10, University of Surrey, UK.
• "What drives the change in UK household energy expenditure and associated CO2 emissions, economic or non-economic factors?" (with L. C. Hunt) (2009), RESOLVE Working Paper 08-09, University of Surrey, UK.
• "Modelling UK household expenditure:  economic versus non-economic drivers" (with L. C. Hunt) (2009), RESOLVE Working Paper 07-09, University of Surrey, UK.

Teaching

• Lecture contribution, University of Surrey, UK, December 2010: Environmental Economics
• Teaching Associate, University of Surrey,UK, 2008-present: Business Economics 
• Lecturer, Alzahra University, Tehran-Iran, 2005-2006: Public Economics - Macroeconomics