• 7 - 7.15 PM: Welcome by prof. dr. Ann De Schepper, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics
• 7.15 - 8.15: PhD Talks:
  • "EPC’s: Green Progress or an Inefficient Mess?" - Tijmen Van Kempen
  • "Towards the sustainable management of the subsurface" - Tine Compernolle
  • "Avoiding repetitive change injury in the public sector. Studying stress-related side-effects of repetitive changes using a biological indicator of stress" - Dries Van Doninck
  • "A PhD for my mid-life crisis" - Geert Haerens
• 8.15 - 8.30 PM: Closing remarks
• 8.30 - 10.00 PM: Reception

1. EPC’s: Green Progress or an Inefficient Mess? - Tijmen Van Kempen

Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) are an increasingly popular policy tool. They are mandatory in all EU member states, the UK, and many US jurisdictions. There is, however, little known about the effectiveness of these certificates. Do they indeed reduce market frictions? Or are the critics right: is there so much cheating going on? Do homebuyers even value energy efficiency at all?

On January 1st, 2023, EPCs in Flanders became more than just an information provision tool. Flanders became the first region in the world to introduce an energy renovation requirement for homebuyers. This legislation obliges anyone who buys a house with an E or F energy label to upgrade it to at least a D label. How did the housing market respond to this law? Did the prices of these houses drop, and if so, by how much? 

With detailed datasets, we exploit Belgium’s unique governmental structure and Flanders’ pioneering legislation to answer these kinds of questions.

2. Towards the sustainable management of the subsurface - Tine Compernolle

The Campine Basin is a unique geological hotspot, that is increasingly being targeted to achieve energy security and environmental objectives. However, subsurface space is limited and competition between subsurface use is increasing. To review policies for planning and managing potential resource interactions and to set priorities if needed, I work closely together with scientists in the field of hydrogeology, environmental economics, and sociology to develop understanding about subsurface interactions and above ground environmental, economic, and social impacts. Stakeholders from the public and private sector as well as local communities are involved in the research activities to better understand their perceptions on the sustainable and just development of the subsurface. With these research activities we aim to support these stakeholders to develop a structural vision on the sustainable development of the Campin Basin, to manage and regulate interacting subsurface activities for the long-term, and to match subsurface use with above ground sustainability

3. Avoiding repetitive change injury in the public sector. Studying stress-related side-effects of repetitive changes using a biological indicator of stress. - Dries Van Doninck

In response to complex challenges and environmental turbulence, public organizations are confronted with increasing rates of change to remain adaptive. For individual civil servants, this can create negative side-effects like uncertainty and stress. Such individual effects of organizational changes can accumulate and stretch beyond the beginning and end of change processes. Past research has underlined the central role of leadership to limit such negative side-effects of organizational changes. To this end, my research project serves two broad ambitions: to gain an understanding of the stress-related effects of such a prolonged exposure to high rates of change, and to identify leadership conditions that could mitigate such an accumulation of stress. To reflect the accumulating effect of repetitive changes, the project explores the use of hair cortisol concentrations as a biological indicator of chronic stress.

4. "A PhD for my mid-life crisis" - Geert Haerens

"Life’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gone get”. There are many roads toward a PhD, although some of those roads are less travelled. Geert would like to share his road. He will refrain from singing “I did it may way” and will focus on why half of century of experience helped in reaching an almost forgotten dream; getting a PhD and teaching.