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.
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.
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.
AP Images
December 18, 2007
Bali Climate Change Conference: Key Takeaways
Summary Report
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board and Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The Bali climate change conference was a qualified success. Before we went to Bali, we observed that it will be good news if there’s no bad news coming out of the negotiations. This was achieved, and then some.
December 17, 2007
"Forging a Climate Agreement That Works"
Op-Ed, PostGlobal, A Conversation on Global Issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board and Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
"...As the nations of the world consider the next international climate agreement, they should not be limited by starting-point bias. In other words, although they should possibly consider an agreement that resembles Kyoto, they should also consider a wide range of other ideas, some of which bear very little resemblance to Kyoto."
December 10, 2007
"Architectures for Agreement: Issues and Options for Post-2012 International Climate Change Policy"
Presentation
By Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board, Carlo Carraro and William A. Pizer
Project Co-Directors Joseph Aldy and Robert Stavins, along with Carlo Carraro of the University of Venice and Resources for the Future's William Pizer, spoke at a Project-sponsored side event at the 13th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia.
December 10, 2007
"Linking Tradable Permit Systems: Opportunities, Implications, and Challenges"
Presentation
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board and Judson Jaffe
Project Co-Director Robert Stavins and Analysis Group Inc.'s Judson Jaffe spoke at an International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)–sponsored side event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. They presented their new report on linking greenhouse gas emissions trading systems, which was also sponsored by IETA.
December 5, 2007
"A Comprehensive U.S. Cap-and-Trade System: A Sensible and Practical Approach to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions"
Presentation
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
Lehman Brothers recently established its Council on Climate Change to bring together leaders from industry, policy, and academia to discuss the political and business implications of climate change. On December 6–7, 2007, they hosted the inaugural Council on Climate Change Summit in New York. Project Co-Director Robert Stavins presented during the Policy Options and Solutions workshop session.
