The Opportunity Cost of Domestic Oil Consumption for an Oil Exporter: Illustration for Saudi Arabia

Principal Fellow- Energy Macro & Microeconomics Fatih is an economist who is interested in energy and environment. Before joining KAPSARC in December 2017, he was an…

Fatih is an economist who is interested in energy and environment. Before joining KAPSARC in December 2017, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Paris Nanterre and was a Fellow at EconomiX-CNRS in France. During this period, he conducted research, taught courses in energy economics, environmental economics, and econometrics, and contributed to projects funded by organizations such as the European Renewable Energy Council, the French Energy Council, and Région Île-de-France.

Fatih’s work at KAPSARC mainly focuses on developing economic frameworks to provide insights into energy and economic policymaking in oil-producing countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. His research appears in leading journals in energy economics as well as general-interest economics journals.

He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2008. Prior to that, he completed an M.A. in Economic Analysis and Modeling jointly offered by the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and École Centrale Paris. Fatih also holds an HDR degree, which is a French accreditation to supervise doctoral research.

Expertise

• Energy Economics
• Environmental Economics
• Applied Economics

Vice President, Knowledge & Analysis Axel Pierru was appointed Vice President of Knowledge and Analysis by the Board of Trustees of KAPSARC in December 2023.…

Axel Pierru was appointed Vice President of Knowledge and Analysis by the Board of Trustees of KAPSARC in December 2023. In this role, he oversees and provides thought leadership to KAPSARC’s research and analysis activities.

He joined KAPSARC in 2011, after spending 15 years at IFP Energies Nouvelles in France where he led research and consulting projects and taught energy economics and finance to postgraduate students. He has served in various leadership roles at KAPSARC, including serving as interim Vice President for Research. From 2014 to 2023 he was a program director, leading the Energy Systems & Modeling, Energy & Macroeconomics, and Energy Macro & Micro-Economics research programs.

Dr. Pierru earned his Ph.D. in economics from University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne (France). He also holds an HDR degree, which is a French accreditation to supervise research. In 2007, Dr. Pierru was awarded Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (knighthood award in the academic field) by the French Ministry for National Education. He is an editor of The Energy Journal, as well as the corecipient of the 2023 OPEC Award for the Best Energy Research Paper, a first-time honor from OPEC.

He leads the Knowledge & Analysis team in designing applied research that blends methodological innovation with practical significance for policymaking. His expertise covers energy economics, policy and finance, the oil market, energy transitions, and commodity-exporting economies.

Dr. Pierru has a proven track record of methodological innovations with over 50 journal papers to his name. He has been a key contributor to developing new research avenues, such as the role of OPEC in stabilizing the oil market, the economic modeling of price controls, or the evaluation of investment projects by international oil companies facing various tax systems.

He also coauthored with Denis Babusiaux the book Corporate Investment Decisions and Economic Analysis: Exercises and Case Studies (2005), a culmination of years of teaching, consulting, and research.

Expertise

• Energy modelling
• Energy economics
• Energy policy
• Oil pricing and finance