Akira Hibiki

Akira Hibiki is a professor in the Graduate School of Economics and Management at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. An environmental and resource economist, he investigates how economic incentives, institutions and public policy influence environmental outcomes. His teaching includes microeconomics and environmental economics, and he supervises doctoral research in these fields.

Research interests

Hibiki’s research covers environmental policy evaluation, the relationship between trade and the environment, water and energy demand, and adaptation to climate change. He also studies environmental liability, renewable energy incentives and the effects of pollution on human health. His published work includes analyses of residential water pricing, environmental information disclosure and agricultural responses to changing weather.

Academic career and professional service

He joined Tohoku University as a professor in April 2015 after holding a professorship at Sophia University. Earlier appointments included research and leadership roles at Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies and an associate professorship at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has also served as associate dean at Tohoku and as president of the Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies.

He directed Tohoku’s Research Center for Policy Design from December 2020 to March 2026 and served as a RIETI consulting fellow from September 2020 to September 2025.

Books and contribution to this textbook

Hibiki and Toshi H. Arimura coauthored Introduction to Environmental Economics and Policy in Japan, published by Springer in 2024. Hibiki wrote its chapters comparing policy instruments, choosing policies under uncertainty, managing waste and landfill capacity, assigning liability for environmental accidents, and evaluating Japanese recycling laws.

His earlier books include a Japanese-language introduction to environmental economics coauthored with Arimura and a jointly authored volume on the political economics of the global environment. His personal publication list also documents contributions to books on renewable energy policy, carbon taxation and environmental management.