Editorial: Special Edition of the Central European Economic Journal to Mark the 70th Birthday of Prof. Tomasz Żylicz

This special edition of the Central European Economic Journal is dedicated to Professor Tomasz Żylicz, to mark his 70th birthday this year – 2021.

Professor Żylicz is widely recognised as one of Poland's most distinguished economists. The focus of his scholarly work has been on the field of environmental economics, and while this classification seems natural today, it is worth noting that Professor Żylicz pioneered the development of this discipline in Poland and internationally at a time when environmental economics and ecological economics, as branches of neoclassical economics, were in their infancy.

Professor Żylicz's work gained international recognition in the early years of the post-Soviet transformation, which was almost unheard of for Polish economists at that time. The influence of his mathematical education can clearly be seen in his writings (a rigorous scientific apparatus), along with his familiarity with state-of-the-art scholarship, which was enhanced by his academic visits to the United States and Sweden. In his work, Professor Żylicz energetically espoused the latest themes in world literature, and his writings were perceived as an important voice from Central Europe. They signalled that this part of Europe was seeing the development of a strong academic centre that was devoted to researching the interface between economics and the environment, which would give the opportunity for the post-Soviet Bloc countries to manage their natural resources more rationally.

Professor Żylicz has also been practically involved in the relationship between economics and the natural environment. This includes his work as Director of the Economics Department at the Polish Ministry of Environment, and later as Advisor to the Minister. He has sat on (and in many cases chaired or vice-chaired) the scientific committees of numerous bodies, including the European Environmental Agency, the Polish Institute for Environmental Protection, the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, national parks and other important institutions. He was member and chair of the Polish Science Policy Committee and State Council for Environmental Protection. He was involved in creating and administering (including as chair) the Polish EcoFund, through which Polish foreign debt to Paris Club countries was converted into financing for environmental protection projects evaluated and approved by the Fund. He participated in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including as the main author of its reports on mitigating changes in the climate. He has edited Environmental and Resource Economics, Ecological Economics, Ambio, and the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, and from 2013 to 2019 he was Editor-in-Chief of the Central European Economic Journal (published until 2016 under the title Ekonomia). He served in the role of expert at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Polish Academy of Sciences. He founded the Warsaw Centre for Ecological Economics, which has integrated the growing number of Polish researchers in this field, catalysed academic collaboration, facilitated the undertaking of ambitious scholarly projects and provided specialist consultation to public sector bodies and non-governmental organisations. For more than a decade, he headed the Chair of Microeconomics in the Faculty of Economic Sciences (FES) at Warsaw University, and in 1999–2012 he served as FES’ vice-dean and then dean.

The wide-ranging academic and practical activities of Professor Żylicz – his pioneering scholarship and popularising work, the very broad spectrum of subjects he has addressed and methodologies used, his insistence on thorough theoretical foundations coupled with a strong emphasis on empirical and applied research, leading to practical implementation – have meant that he has had a profound impact on the study of economics. His legacy is visible in the work of the successive younger generations of Polish economists nurtured by him, including those whose professional lives are devoted to environmental economics and nature policy, resulting in notable success in their academic work and public activities both within Poland and around the world.

I am privileged to count myself among those for whom Professor Żylicz has been a formative influence. I first came into contact with the Professor when I applied for doctoral studies at the Faculty of Economic Studies in Warsaw. I found his love for the natural world contagious and I quickly became convinced that economics can make a great contribution to its protection and to the more beneficial management of its resources. More than anything else, however, the Professor opened the doors for me to the world of real scholarship. It was thanks to him that I was able to involve myself in research projects shoulder-to-shoulder with outstanding foreign scholars, attend challenging courses for doctoral students and receive grants for research abroad. Consequent to these opportunities, I discovered what academic work is really about, and how it is done by the best scholars, with whom I was able to build valuable relationships. Further, even after my doctorate, as my career has progressed, I have always been able to count on the Professor's counsel and support. I am deeply grateful to him for everything he has contributed to my life and work.

Professor Żylicz has been an authority, mentor, inspiration and example for many besides me. This issue of the Central European Economic Journal contains texts by just some of them. The subject matter is very varied, reflecting the broad spectrum of themes in environmental economics addressed by Professor Żylicz. Some articles have a more philosophical flavour, with theoretical reflection inspired by discussions with Professor Żylicz on the themes of rationality, education, sustainable development and society (Śleszyński, 2021), consideration of the significance of welfare and equality in environmental economics and policy (Górka and Thier, 2021), and retrospection on the development of environmental and ecological economics in Poland and worldwide, and Professor Żylicz's contribution to these disciplines (Czaja, 2021). Markowska (2021) analyses how the state of democracy, encompassing the rule of law and freedom in Poland, as measured by several of the most commonly used indicators, has impacted the Polish environmental protection policy, referencing a number of important examples of government actions over the past decade. The articles by Witajewski (2021) and Kiuila and Lewczuk (2021) have a more methodological character, based on the results of computable general equilibrium modelling. Witajewski (2021) decomposes the costs arising from increased taxation of coal-based energy generation technologies, which, due to declining productivity in these sectors and price rises, may impact consumers and employees in various ways. Kiuila and Lewczuk (2021) analyse possible developmental scenarios for the Polish energy sector, including an increased use of renewable energy sources, and evaluate the credibility of the government's ambitious targets for reduced emissions, as well as the effects of government policies on economic growth. The last two articles discuss the non-market valuation of environmental goods, an area of study which was another important focus of Professor Żylicz's scholarly work. Miłaszewski (2021) reviews Polish studies which have used a conditional valuation approach in relation to water quality improvement. Markiewicz (2021) presents pioneering Polish research into the value of a statistical life with reference to the cost-effectiveness thresholds for medical interventions applied in Poland.

I hope that you will find the articles in this special edition of the Central European Economic Journal both intellectually stimulating and sublimely enjoyable, and I earnestly anticipate that while considering the themes it contains you will also reflect on Professor Żylicz's influence on the theory and practice of environmental economics in Poland and throughout the world.

Mikołaj Czajkowski