Grégory De Boe est assistant à l'UCLouvain FUCaM Mons pour les cours suivants (année académique 2024-2025) : 

Grégory De Boe is a teaching assistant and researcher at UCLouvain, currently pursuing his Ph.D. under the guidance of Professors Marie Lamensch and Valérie Swaen. His Ph.D. research is structured around three essays, each focusing on the intricate ways environmental taxes and subsidies influence corporate decision-making processes, particularly in adopting pro-environmental behaviors.

Essay 1: "Greening Corporate Practices: A Review of Tax and Subsidy Influence on Pro-Environmental Behaviors Across Industries"

This essay undertakes a comprehensive examination of the influence of taxes and subsidies on corporate pro-environmental behaviors across various industries. By conducting a systematic review of 171 articles, the study aims to uncover industry-specific variations in outcomes. The research delves into factors such as the level of taxation or subsidy, the economic agents affected, subsidy sources, external factors, and conflicting environmental objectives in tax policy. The overarching goal is to provide policymakers with valuable insights for designing effective tax and subsidy mechanisms and to propose avenues for further scholarly exploration of the intricate interactions between tax policies and corporate pro-environmental behaviors.

Essay 2: "Taxing Plastic Packaging for a More Circular Economy: National Divergences and the Case for Harmonization"

This essay assesses the tax strategies arising from the EU Plastic Packaging Levy and implemented across EU Member States and the UK. It compares design choices and evaluates their potential effectiveness in promoting circular plastic use. The essay also questions the societal desirability of a harmonized plastic packaging tax at the EU level, considering its interaction with the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Overall, this essay provides an overview of national strategies regarding the taxation of plastic packaging and makes recommendations for enhancing policy coherence between EU and national initiatives, ensuring effective solutions to the environmental pressures posed by plastics and promoting a transition to the circular economy.

Essay 3: "Driving Circular Innovation: The Perceived Influence of Plastic Packaging Taxes on Food Packaging Practices in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal"

This study explores the perceived influence of plastic packaging taxes on circularity in food packaging production across the UK, Spain, and Portugal. Through interviews with stakeholders—including plastic converters, recyclers, and food and beverage brands—the research identifies key circular practices such as eco-design, increased recycling, and carbon and water footprint reduction. The findings highlight critical drivers and obstacles shaping these practices, including collaboration along the food packaging value chain, innovation, culture, operational challenges, market conditions, regulatory frameworks, and material chemical properties. The essay underscores the multifaceted nature of fostering circularity in food packaging and provides practical insights for designing tax policies for sustainability. By exploring how taxes interact with broader ecosystem dynamics, the study enriches environmental policy discussions and offers actionable recommendations to reduce non-recycled plastic waste among food packaging stakeholders.

Together, these three essays form a cohesive and multi-faceted exploration of the complex relationships between taxation, corporate pro-environmental behaviors, and circular practices within the food packaging industry. They provide valuable insights for policymakers and contribute to the broader academic discourse on environmental policy and corporate sustainability.