Articles by Kristen Sheeran

Kristen Sheeran is the director of Economics for Equity and the Environment Network (E3), a nationwide network of economists developing new arguments for environmental protection with a social justice focus. Her research is focused on the tension between equity and efficiency in public goods provision, the political economy of environmental policy, and climate change mitigation. She is author of Saving Kyoto (New Holland, 2009) with Graciela Chichilnisky.

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Pollution is not the solution.Cross-posted from Real Climate Economics.

Paul Krugman’s column in The New York Times Thursday laments one of the many ironies of our time: Politicians in Washington are finally talking about job creation, but Republicans (and some Democrats, I’m sure) pin their hopes for employment on environmental deregulation. As Krugman points out, “Serious economic analysis actually says that we need more protection, not less.”

By serious economic analysis, Krugman means peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals over the last few decades that have probed the relationship between environmental regulations, employment, and economic growth. He doesn’t mean the American Petroleum Institute’s latest report that purports to show job growth potential through … wait for it … relaxing restrictions on oil and gas extraction. He means the latest findings by Yale University economist William Nordhaus, published in the American Economic Review [PDF], the top-ranked journal in economics, that finds that the economic cost of air pollution exceeds the value added of coal-fired electric generat... Read more

Kristen Sheeran Health

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Building the economic case for climate action

The Economics for Equity and the Environment Network convened a recent meeting of economists [PDF] at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to discuss the role of economics in building support for climate action in the U.S. The economists who convened view climate change as a civilizational challenge that demands immediate action to […]

Kristen Sheeran Science
Why your money can’t protect you from climate change

It’s hard to see how the West will benefit from, say, more floods.Photo: NZRicoIn a recent article in Newsweek, Nobel laureate economist Thomas Schelling argues that one of the greatest obstacles to addressing climate change is persuading the non-poor in the developed world to take the problem seriously. As he states: Estimates of lost world […]

Kristen Sheeran Science
Can a technology-first approach to climate change work?

The progression of time and accumulated evidence of global warming finds us still committed to forging solutions -- albeit, different ones.

Kristen Sheeran Politics
California's landmark climate law: Job killer or creator?

Proposition 23 proponents claim AB 32 will kill jobs and California should wait until unemployment rates drops to 5.5 percent. Is there truth to that?

Eban Goodstein & Kristen Sheeran Technology