BOOK DESCRIPTION
Robert N. Stavins has been one of the most influential voices in environmental economics and policy over the past two decades. The 26 essays in this book, written by Professor Stavins and his co-authors over the period 2000–2011, originally appeared in a diverse set of leading, scholarly periodicals, and are collected here for the first time.
This book is divided into seven parts: overview; methods of environmental policy analysis; economic analysis of environmental policy instruments; economics and technical change; natural resource economics – land and water; domestic climate change policy; and international climate change policy. The book begins with an introductory essay in which Stavins reflects on the professional path that led to his research and writing and identifies common themes that emerge from this period of research.
Students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers will find this volume a valuable and very useful addition to their collection.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert N. Stavins is the A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy & Economic Development, Director of Graduate Studies for the Doctoral Programs in Public Policy and in Political Economy and Government, Co-chair of the MPP/MBA and MPA/ID/MBA Joint Degree Programs. He is the Director of the and the . He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a University Fellow of Resources for the Future, former Chair of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Economics Advisory Board, and a member of the editorial councils of scholarly periodicals. His research has examined diverse areas of environmental economics and policy and has appeared in a variety of economics, law, and policy journals, as well as several books. Stavins directed Project 88, a bipartisan effort co-chaired by former Senator Timothy Wirth and the late Senator John Heinz to develop innovative approaches to environmental problems. He has been a consultant to government agencies, international organizations, corporations, and advocacy groups. He holds a BA in philosophy from Northwestern University, an MS in agricultural economics from Cornell, and a PhD in economics from Harvard.
The Virtual Book Tour was brought to you by vlog Library & Research Services. As of Spring 2019, our faculty video series is called Behind the Book.
Robert Stavins:
Hi. I'm Rob Stavins, a faculty member here at the Harvard Kennedy School, and I'm delighted to have an opportunity to talk with you today about a new book of mine, which just came out, which is Economics of Climate Change and Environmental Policy, published by Edward Elgar.
When I first came to Harvard, which was about 30 years ago, to start the PhD program in the economics department there, there wasn't a field of environmental economics, as it's now known, and I more or less had to do some of it on my own to identify an optional special field.
Much has changed since then, and, 25 years ago, when I came to the Kennedy School to join the faculty, there were hints of the beginning of such a field. Ten years ago, approximately, I was approached by Edward Elgar, the UK-based publisher, to put together a collection of selected papers of mine - articles from academic journals in this, what was still a relatively new area of environmental economics and policy. Here's the book we put out in 1999.
Much more recently, Edward Elgar came back and said, "Well, it's been ten years. How about a second edition, featuring the second of this 20-year period of your scholarship in environmental resource and energy economics?"
I was delighted to agree, and that's what this new book, Economics of Climate Change and Environmental Policy, is about. It contains in it 30 papers of mine that have appeared in a variety of journals - The American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the Journal of Economic Literature, and a lon g list of others - and, also, importantly, an introductory essay, in which I set out ...
As they had asked me to do, I set out the entire intellectual path that's taken me, really, from my undergraduate days at Northwestern to Harvard and then to the Kennedy School and how these various articles fit into that. It's been a remarkable journey, personally, for me, and putting together the second collection of my works has been a marvelous experience.
So I've enjoyed it. The people who have already gotten hold of a copy of the book have told me that they found it very interesting, and if you think you might find it interesting, then I hope you'll obtain a copy as well. Thanks very much.