Mailing address
Littauer 306
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Website
More Publications
Robert N. Stavins
Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
Director, Harvard Environmental Economics Program
Chair, Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Group
Chairman, PhD Programs in Public Policy and Political Economy & Government
Co-Chair, Kennedy School-Harvard Business School Joint Degree Programs
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: (617) 495-1820
Fax: (617) 496-3783
Email: robert_stavins@harvard.edu
Website: http://www.stavins.com
Publications: http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~rstavins/cvweb.html
Experience
Robert N. Stavins is the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program, Chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Group at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Director of Graduate Studies for the Doctoral Program in Public Policy and the Doctoral Program in Political Economy and Government. He is a University Fellow of Resources for the Future, the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Editor of the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, and a Member of: the Board of Directors of Resources for the Future, the Board of Academic Advisors of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, the Executive Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Editorial Boards of Resource and Energy Economics, Environmental Economics Abstracts, Environmental Law and Policy Abstracts, B.E. Journals of Economic Analysis & Policy, and Economic Issues. He is also an editor of the Journal of Wine Economics. He was formerly a member of the Editorial Board of Land Economics, The Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, a member and Chair of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board, a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, a Lead Author of the Second and Third Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a contributing editor of Environment. . He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Northwestern University, an M.S. in agricultural economics from Cornell, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard.
Professor Stavins' research has focused on diverse areas of environmental economics and policy, including examinations of: policy instrument choice under uncertainty; competitiveness effects of regulation; design and implementation of market-based policy instruments; diffusion of pollution-control technologies; and depletion of forested wetlands. His current research includes analyses of: technology innovation; environmental benefit valuation; political economy of policy instrument choice; and econometric estimation of carbon sequestration costs. His research has appeared in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Economic Literature, Science, Nature, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Ecology Law Quarterly, Journal of Regulatory Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Resource and Energy Economics, The Energy Journal, Energy Policy, Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, Explorations in Economic History, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, other scholarly and popular periodicals, and several books. He is the editor of the fifth edition of Economics of the Environment (W. W. Norton, 2005), co-editor of Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms (Resources for the Future, 2005), editor of The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2004), co-editor of the second edition of Public Policies for Environmental Protection (Resources for the Future, 2000), and the author of Environmental Economics and Public Policy: Selected Papers of Robert N. Stavins, 1988-1999 (Edward Elgar, 2000).
Professor Stavins directed Project 88, a bi-partisan effort co-chaired by former Senator Timothy Wirth and the late Senator John Heinz, to develop innovative approaches to environmental and resource problems. He continues to work closely with public officials on matters of national and international environmental policy. He has been a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences, the President's Council on Sustainable Development, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, and Interior, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Members of Congress, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme, state and national governments, and private foundations and firms.
Prior to coming to Harvard, Stavins was a staff economist at the Environmental Defense Fund; and before that, he managed irrigation development in the middle east, and spent four years working in agricultural extension in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. His wife, Joanna Stavins, is an Economist in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. They have two children, Daniel and Julia.
A complete list of working papers and publications is available at Professor Stavins' home page.
AP Photo
November 12, 2008
"Inspiration for Climate Change"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
"...[W]ill Obama work with Congress to develop climate strategies that are scientifically sound, economically sensible, and thereby politically pragmatic? Will he take on the difficult task of crafting meaningful climate legislation?
The only politically feasible approach that can make a real dent in the problem is a comprehensive, upstream cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 50 to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The declining cap will increase the cost of polluting, thereby discouraging the use of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels and providing powerful incentives for energy conservation and technology innovation."
September 2008
"Linkage of Tradable Permit Systems in International Climate Policy Architecture"
Discussion Paper
By Judson Jaffe and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
Cap-and-trade systems have emerged as the preferred national and regional instrument for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases throughout the industrialized world, and the Clean Development Mechanism — an international emission-reduction-credit system — has developed a substantial constituency, despite some concerns about its performance. Because linkage between tradable permit systems can reduce compliance costs and improve market liquidity, there is great interest in linking cap-and-trade systems to each other, as well as to the CDM and other credit systems. We examine the benefits and concerns associated with various types of linkages, and analyze the near-term and long-term role that linkage may play in a future international climate policy architecture.
AP Photo
September 3, 2008
"The Role of Technology Policies in an International Climate Agreement"
Paper
By Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements has agreed to help the Office of the Danish Prime Minister, in its role as incoming President of the 2009 Conference of the Parties, to prepare background papers and on-site briefings for a series of very high-level dialogues on climate change policy, hosted by the Prime Minister. These dialogues will each include about 25 participants, including CEOs of European and U.S. corporations, key officials from national governments and intergovernmental organizations, and leaders of major environmental NGOs. This paper on the subject of technology policies was prepared by the Harvard Project leadership for the second dialogue.
May 2008
Climate Change: Expert Opinion on the Economics of Policy Options to Address Climate Change
Report
By U.S. Government Accountability Office, Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
"...GAO was asked to elicit the opinions of experts on (1) actions the Congress might consider to address climate change and what is known about the potential benefits, costs, and uncertainties of these actions and (2) the key strengths and limitations of policies or actions to address climate change. GAO worked with the National Academy of Sciences to identify a panel of noted economists with expertise in analyzing the economic impacts of climate change policies and gathered their opinions through iterative, Web-based questionnaires. The findings reported here represent the views of the 18 economists who responded to both questionnaires."
Two of the 18 economists who participated were Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements Co-Directors Joseph Aldy and Robert Stavins. In addition, two other participating economists, James Edmonds of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and William Pizer of Resources for the Future, are members of Harvard Project research teams.
May 7, 2008
"Economic Incentives in a New Climate Agreement"
Paper
By Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements has agreed to help the Office of the Danish Prime Minister, in its role as incoming President of the 2009 Conference of the Parties, to prepare background papers and on-site briefings for a series of very high-level dialogues on climate change policy, hosted by the Prime Minister. These dialogues will each include about 25 participants, including CEOs of European and U.S. corporations, key officials from national governments and intergovernmental organizations, and leaders of major environmental NGOs. This paper on the subject of economic incentives was prepared by the Harvard Project leadership for the first dialogue.
May / June 2008
"Climate Policy Architectures for the Post-Kyoto World"
Journal Article, Environment, issue 3, volume 50
By Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
"The global climate has changed and will continue to change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from a broad variety of human activities. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change determined that 'most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.' If greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow unabated, the global average temperature will likely increase between 1.1°C and 6.4°C. This warming will unleash a myriad of impacts, the vast majority of which will adversely affect water availability, agricultural and forestry productivity, the spread of infectious diseases, extreme weather events, unique ecosystems and rare species, and the built environment in coastal areas. The risks of global climate change clearly necessitate an international effort."
April 14, 2008
"Addressing Global Climate Change with a Comprehensive U.S. Cap-and-Trade System"
Discussion Paper
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
There is a growing impetus for a domestic U.S. climate policy that can provide meaningful reductions in emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The paper describes and analyzes an up-stream, economy-wide CO2 cap-and-trade system which implements a gradual trajectory of emissions reductions (with inclusion over time of non-CO2 greenhouse gases), and includes mechanisms to reduce cost uncertainty.
March 16, 2008
"State Fight Against Climate Change Benefits Everyone"
Op-Ed, Sacramento Bee
By Lawrence Goulder and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
"Because a cap-and-trade system would reduce California's overall greenhouse gas emissions, it would also lower the state's emissions of the co-pollutants. Still, it's possible, though unlikely, that co-pollutant emissions would increase in a particular locality. But here it's crucial to recognize that existing air pollution laws address such pollutants, and so any greenhouse gas allowance trades that would violate local air pollution limits would be prohibited."
January 24, 2008
"A Sensible and Practical Way to Cut U.S. CO2 Emissions"
Op-Ed
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
There is growing impetus for a domestic U.S. climate policy that can provide meaningful reductions in emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. It is important to identify the best policy instruments at the outset, because once a policy architecture is put in place, it can be very difficult to make a change. A poorly designed policy could impose unnecessarily high costs while providing little public benefit, and could detract from the development of a more effective, long-run policy.
January 18, 2008
"Stavins Keen to Strike a Balance"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Upstream
By Terry Slavin and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
Harvard economist Robert Stavins has a lead role in setting the climate change agenda and he remains optimistic of progress, as long as the pragmatic approach wins the day.
