Alain-Désiré Nimubona

Associate Professor
Alain Nimubona

animubona@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567 x43949
Office: HH 212
Personal website

CV:Alain-Désiré Nimubona

BA (Université du Burundi); MSci; PhD (École des Hautes Études commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montréal) - Univ of Montréal)

Areas of specialization: Environmental economics; Industrial organization; Development economics

Research interests

I am interested in analysing the equilibrium relationships between polluters and their abatement equipment suppliers, which constitutes the environmental industry or eco-industry. Using economic modelling, I have been studying the interplay between environmental and trade policies related to the eco-industry, as well as the market structure of this industry.

More recently, my research interests have widened to include issues related to trade and environment in developing countries, with a focus on the analysis of the effectiveness of green foreign aid. Another recent research interest of mine is the study of the effects of market power in the Canadian gasoline industry.

Biography

I grew up in Bujumbura (Burundi) and studied economics at the Université du Burundi. Thanks to a scholarship for academic excellence received from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), I was able to pursue my MSc studies at HEC Montréal (affiliated with the Université de Montréal). I went on to complete my PhD in applied economics at the same institution on a Trudeau Scholarship.

Due to my personal background as a native of a developing country, my early research interests were in development economics. I have conducted empirical and theoretical research related to structural adjustment programs and intergenerational education mobility in sub-Saharan Africa. Although I remain interested in development issues, I decided to specialize in environmental economics during my PhD studies. I developed research streams in environmental economics and industrial organization, especially in the analysis of imperfect competition strategies of the eco-industry - the specialized industry that supplies abatement goods and services, such as air pollution control and wastewater management, to polluters. As a faculty member at Waterloo, I continue, among other projects, to fully explore these issues with applications in the Alberta oil sands industry.

Selected publications

  • Delabroye, Solveig, Alain-Désiré Nimubona, and Bernard Sinclair-Desgagné (2016), “International Trade and the Environmental Goods and Services Industry”, Chapter 12, The WSPC Reference on Natural Resources and Environmental Policy in the Era of Global Change, Volume 1, Game Theory, Editors: Ana Espinola-Arredondo and Felix Munoz-Garcia, Editor-in-Chief: Ariel Dinar.
  • Nimubona, Alain-Désiré and Hassan Benchekroun (2015), “Environmental R&D in the Presence of an Eco-industry”, Environmental Modeling and Assessment, 20(5): 491-507.
  • Nimubona, Alain-Désiré, “Pollution Policy and Liberalization of Trade in Environmental Goods”, Environmental and Resource Economics, 53(3): 323-346.
  • Nimubona, Alain-Désiré and Bernard Sinclair-Desgagné (2011), “Polluters and Abaters”, Annals of Economics and Statistics, 103-104: 9-24.
  • David, Maia, Alain-Désiré Nimubona, and Bernard Sinclair-Desgagné (2011), “Emission Taxes and the Market for Abatement Goods and Services”, Resource and Energy Economics, 33(1): 179-91
  • Nimubona, Alain-Désiré and Désiré Vencatachellum (2007), “Intergenerational Education Mobility of Black and White South Africans”, Journal of Population Economics, 20: 149-82