Rate My Professor Machiel Mulder

Prof. dr. Machiel Mulder is Professor of Energy Economics in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. He obtained his PhD in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1994, Master of Science in Economics cum laude from the University of Groningen in 1985, Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Groningen in 1983, Bachelor of Science in Philosophy from the University of Groningen in 1984, and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1990. His professional career encompasses key appointments such as Professor of Regulation of Energy Markets at the University of Groningen from 2013 to 2020, Specialist Regulatory Economics at the Office of the Chief Economist of the Authority for Consumers & Markets from 2013 to 2016, Deputy Chief Economist at the Netherlands Competition Authority from 2007 to 2013, Head of the Department of Economics at CE Delft in 2006-2007, Head of the Energy Department at the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis from 2000 to 2006, and scientific staff positions at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute from 1989 to 1999 and the Council for Small and Medium Sized Firms from 1986 to 1988.

Machiel Mulder directs the Centre for Energy Business and Economics Research and serves as Program Director for the Executive MBA Energy Transition at the University of Groningen Business School. His research focuses on energy economics, including market fundamentals and competition in electricity and gas markets, impacts of renewable and distributed energy generation, cross-border market integration, regulation of energy networks, energy poverty, and climate policy mechanisms such as carbon leakage mitigation under the EU ETS. Notable publications include his book Regulation of Energy Markets: Economic Mechanisms and Policy Evaluation (SpringerNature, 2023, second edition) and peer-reviewed articles such as Market fundamentals, competition and natural-gas prices (Energy Policy, 2016, with D. Hulshof and J.-P. van der Maat), Competition in the Dutch electricity wholesale market: An empirical analysis over 2006-2011 (The Energy Journal, 2015), Distributed energy generation techniques and the competitive fringe effect in electricity markets (Resource and Energy Economics, 2015, with V. Petrikaite and B. Scholtens), and Cross-border constraints, institutional changes and integration of the Dutch-German gas market (Energy Economics, 2016, with G.H. Kuper). He received an NWO grant in 2015 for research on electricity market changes due to sustainable energy and has been a board member of the International Association for Energy Economics since 2017. Mulder chairs guidance committees for evaluations of the Just Transition Fund and climate investment support schemes, advises on projects like AgEnRes and the Agro-nutri-monitor, and supervises PhD theses on topics including hydrogen economics, tariff regulation, and finance in a carbon-constrained world. He coordinates and lectures in courses on energy systems, markets, policy, and regulation.