Harvard Environmental Economics Program: People - Pre-Doctoral Fellows & Graduate Student Placements

Gabriel Chan
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Gabe’s research interests are focused on climate policy and energy economics. He is interested in the interaction of climate policy and international trade policy inducing emission leakage. Gabe is also interested in energy technology innovation, specifically government energy research and development policy. Gabe received his undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science at M.I.T and has worked at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Office of Climate Change Policy and Technology.

Thom Covert
Ph.D. Student in Economics
Thom's research interests are environmental economics, energy markets, and technical innovation in energy and health. He worked for 3 years as an economics consultant, with a focus on litigation in energy markets.

Tara Grillos
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Tara's area of research is environment and development policy. In particular, she is interested in access to clean water and accounting for ecosystem services lost due to deforestation. Tara graduated with a B.A. in International Studies and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School. She then spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, where she worked with community water boards and micro-lending groups in rural areas, and with an educational center for at-risk urban youth.

Kelsey Jack
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Brooke "Kelsey" Jack is interested in individual level decision-making related to natural resources in developing countries. Kelsey spent two years as a program officer with IUCN -- The World Conservation Union in Lao PDR, where she worked on issues of conservation and rural livelihoods. She has also done research for the World Resources Institute, for the Dean of New York University Law School, and for the Princeton Environmental Institute. She is a recipient of the Vicki Norberg-Bohm Fellowship and a Center for International Development Doctoral Research Grant. Kelsey received her undergraduate degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.

Supreet Kaur
Ph.D. Student in Political Economy and Government
Supreet is interested in environmental issues in developing countries. Her current projects include reducing air pollution by targeting asymmetric information in fuel markets, and understanding the effects of groundwater depletion and soil degradation on economic and social outcomes in agricultural areas. She holds a B.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University and an MPA in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research has received support from the Consortium on Energy Policy Research at Harvard, and she is currently a Dissertation Fellow with the Project on Justice, Welfare, and Economics at Harvard University.

Avinash Kishore
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Avinash is interested in environment and energy policy. He worked for four years on water and energy policy in India after doing his MBA. He came to Harvard after doing an MPA and Certificate Program in Science, Technology, and Environment Policy (STEP) at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He has published papers on rural electrification, groundwater irrigation, and management transfer of public irrigation systems.

Robyn Meeks
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Robyn's research interests include water resource management; rural water supply and sanitation; and, more broadly, environmental and development economics. After obtaining her bachelor's degree in political science from Brown University, Robyn taught environmental studies as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan. She then received an M.E.M. in water resources management from Yale University, where she was awarded the Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship for study of the Russian language. After obtaining her master's degree, Robyn consulted for the Energy and Environment Group at the United Nations Development Programme. Most recently, as a Fulbright recipient, she researched tariff collection in rural water supply systems in the Kyrgyz Republic. Meeks was a 2007 recipient of the Norberg-Bohm Fellowship, awarded by the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Matthew Ranson
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Matthew is interested in a combination of environmental and behavioral economics--for example, in methods of adapting environmental valuation models to account for sub-rational consumer behaviors. Matthew graduated from Harvard University in 2002 with an A.B. in Environmental Science and Public Policy and Economics, magna cum laude with high honors in field. From 2002 to 2006 he worked as a research assistant, associate analyst, and analyst at Abt Associates Inc., where he conducted cost-benefit analysis for a variety of proposed U.S. EPA regulations. During his tenure at Abt, Matthew co-authored several journal articles analyzing how researcher methodological choices affect the results of revealed and stated preference valuation models.
w: ksghome.harvard.edu/~ransonm/

Olga Rostapshova
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Olga's research interests include climate change, environmental policy in transition economies and firm decision-making under uncertainty. She had previously completed research projects modeling: non-point source pollution; fishery management strategies; energy portfolio optimization; and the effects of uncertainty and irreversibility on the design and timing of environmental policy. Before coming to Harvard she worked as a senior consultant for the Quantitative Economics and Statistics group at Ernst & Young LLP, where she focused on econometric modeling, economic impact and taxation analysis, biotechnology industry strategy, and risk mitigation and consumer regulation compliance for large financial services firms. Olga completed her undergraduate work at Swarthmore College and holds a B.S. in Engineering and B.A. in Economics, with Environmental Studies and Public Policy concentrations. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, Morris K. Udall scholarship for the environment, U.S. Army Excellence in Science and Engineering award, National Institutes of Health biomedical fellowship, Sam Hayes III grant for business economics, and the Scheur grant for the environment. In addition, she has served as the U.S. representative to the United Nations Environmental Youth Conference and is a Sigma Xi Research Honor Society associate member.

Trisha Shrum
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Trisha's research interests include climate change mitigation and energy policy, as seen through the disciplinary lenses of environmental and behavioral ecomonics. She graduated from the University of Kansas with bachelor's degrees in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Science and with a minor in Economics. She went on to work on climate change and energy policy as a research fellow at the Kansas Energy Council. Last spring, she graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a Masters in Environmental Science

Richard Sweeney
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Rich's interests typically lie at the intersection of environmental economics and energy policy. He graduated from Boston College in 2004 with a B.S. in Economics and Political Science, and then studied post-Communist transition at C.E.R.G.E. in the Czech Republic on a Fulbright scholarship. Rich also spent two years as a research assistant at Resources for the Future, where his research involved electricity regulation, climate policy design and the economics of renewable energy.

Elizabeth Walker
Ph.D. Student in Public Policy
Elizabeth Walker is interested in land use, climate change, and policy design in lesser developed countries, particularly in Africa. She spent a year in Mozambique with the organization TechnoServe, where she contributed to agriculture-based economic development projects. Prior to this, she spent two years as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. Elizabeth obtained her undergraduate degree from MIT, where she studied environmental engineering science.

Hunt Allcott
Ph.D. Public Policy 2009
Hunt will be a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Economics during academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11. He will begin an appointment as Assistant Professor of Economics at New York University in fall 2011.

Joseph E. Aldy
Ph.D. Economics 2005
Special Assistant to the President for Energy and the Environment
Aldy was most recently a Fellow at Resources for the Future. His research addresses questions about climate change policy, mortality risk valuation (value of statistical life), energy subsidies to low-income households, and energy policy. He has studied the design of international climate change policy architectures; the costs, effectiveness, and principles of emissions trading programs and other mitigation policies; and the relationship between economic development and greenhouse gas emissions. He is the Co-Director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and the Co-Director of the International Energy Workshop. Aldy served on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 2000.
w: http://www.rff.org/aldy.cfm

Hunt Allcott
Ph.D. Public Policy 2009
Hunt's environmental research interests include technological change in the energy industry, tradable allowance markets, and automotive fuel economy. In development economics, he focuses on poverty alleviation and the energy industry in Latin America. He came to Harvard from the consultancy Cambridge Energy Research Associates, where he advised energy companies on climate change, emissions markets, and renewable energy. He is a recipient of the Joseph Crump Fellowship. Hunt holds a B.S. and M.S. in engineering from Stanford University. His research at Stanford, in the Goldman Honors Program in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy, focused on the economics of the California Zero Emission Vehicle Program.
w: ksghome.harvard.edu/~allcoth/

Lori S. Bennear
Ph.D. Public Policy 2004
Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University
Lori S. Bennear's research interests include environmental and natural resource economics, applied microeconomics, and empirical methods. Her research focuses on estimating the effects of various regulatory innovations on measures of facility-level environmental performance, such as pollution levels, chemical use, and technology choice. Recent work has focused on measuring the effectiveness of management-based regulations, which require each regulated entity to develop its own internal rules and initiates to achieve reductions in pollution, as well as the effectiveness of regulations that mandate public reporting of toxic emissions.
w: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/bennear.html

Jing Cao
Ph.D. Public Policy 2007
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing China
Jing Cao is an assistant professor at the Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University. Her research interests are in the economics of the environment, energy economics, integrated modeling of economic and environment system, climate change economics and modeling, productivity and economic growth. Her research has included the estimation of co-benefits of greenhouse gas abatement activities at the technology level and policy level, computable general equilibrium modeling on optimal environmental taxation, assessment of environmental health damage for China, and integrated top-down and bottom-up modeling on induced technology change and economy-wide policy effects. Currently her research is focused on empirically testing the cost of China's environmental policy on firms' performance, green productivity measurement, integrated modeling of climate change, energy system and land use changes.
w: http://www.ccwe.org.cn/jingcao.htm

Wenhua Di
Ph.D. Public Policy 2004
Clinical Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas
Wenhua Di is also an economist at the Community Affairs Department of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Her primary research areas are environmental economics, urban economics, and economic development. Di has a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences and a master's degree in environmental planning and management from Peking University.
w: http://www.utdallas.edu/~wxd041000/

Karen Fisher-Vanden
Ph.D. Public Policy 1999
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College
Karen Fisher-Vanden is an environmental economist who has studied economic instruments for pollution control, economic and integrated assessment modeling for climate change policy analysis, and the diffusion of energy-efficient technologies in developing and transition economies. Currently, she is studying the effects of market reforms on structural change and technological diffusion in China and their implications for energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
w: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~envs/faculty/fisher.html

Darby Jack
Ph.D. Public Policy 2005
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Darby Jack's research centers on empirical analysis of human-environment interactions in developing countries. His current projects focus on environmental determinants of human health, and on the role of infrastructure in poverty alleviation in cities. He is also helping to develop the Atalaya Institute, a new public policy organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His doctoral research at Harvard University analyzed the determinants of household energy technology choices by poor households in Latin America and the linkages between energy, indoor air pollution, and human health.
w: http://www.columbia.edu/~dj2183/

Nathaniel Keohane
Ph.D. Political Economy and Government 2001
Director of Economic Policy and Analysis, Environmental Defense Fund
Nat Keohane works to develop and advocate environmentally responsible and economically sound climate policies aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. He seeks to bring economic theory and empirical analysis to bear on questions such as the optimal design of cap-and-trade systems and the long-term impacts of climate policy on the U.S. economy. Nat's research focuses on the design and performance of market-based environmental policies. Nat was formerly an assistant professor at Yale School of Organization and Management.
w: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=12740

Suzi Kerr
Ph.D. Economics 1995
Visiting Professor, Economics Department, Stanford University
Director and Senior Fellow, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington, New Zealand
Suzi Kerr has worked as a housing analyst for the New Zealand Treasury and at the University of Maryland as an Assistant Professor. She has also been a visiting scholar at Resources for the Future, Victoria University (New Zealand), and the Joint Center for the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT. Her current research work empirically and theoretically investigates domestic and international emissions trading issues, with special emphasis on land use and climate change in both the tropics and New Zealand, domestic carbon permit market design, and other topics in environmental policy.
w: http://www.motu.org.nz/about/people/suzi.kerr.php

Carolyn Kousky
Ph.D. Political Economy and Government 2008
Fellow, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.

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Cynthia Lin
Ph.D. Economics 2006
Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis
Cynthia Lin is one of the seven economists selected to serve on the California State Controller's Council of Economic Advisors. She is also the Fossil Fuels Tract Director of the UC-Davis Institute of Transportation Studies Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program.
w: http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Lin/

Ruben Lubowski
Ph.D. Political Economy and Government 2002
Forest Carbon Economics Fellow, Environmental Defense Fund

Richard Newell
Ph.D. Public Policy 1997
Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics, Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University
In addition to his position at Duke, Richard Newell is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a University Fellow of Resources for the Future. Professor Newell’s research centers on the economics of markets and policies for the environment, energy, and related technologies, particularly the cost and effectiveness of alternatives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving other environmental and energy goals. Economic analysis of market-based policies, technology policies, and the influence of markets and policy on technology innovation and adoption are important themes in his work.
w: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/newell.html

Sheila Olmstead
Ph.D. Public Policy 2002
Associate Professor of Environmental Economics, Yale School of Forestry and Evnironmental Studies
Professor Olmstead's general research and teaching interests are in the area of environmental and natural resource economics and policy, including both natural resource management and pollution control. Her current area of primary research is the economics of water supply and demand, with a focus on urban settings. In particular, she is interested in measuring the effectiveness of various policy instruments, such as increasing block pricing and nonprice demand management programs, in dealing with urban water scarcity. Her long-term research interests include the determinants of access to clean drinking water among low-income populations in the United States and developing countries; efficiency losses due to economic underpricing of public water supply; and current and potential applications of water marketing and water quality trading.
w: http://environment.yale.edu/people/302-Sheila-Olmstead/parent:faculty/

William Pizer
Ph.D. Economics 1996
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy, United States Department of the Treasury

Todd Schatzki
Ph.D. Public Policy 1998
Manager, Analysis Group
Dr. Schatzki specializes in the application of microeconomics, econometrics, and data analysis to litigation, complex business issues, and public policy. Dr. Schatzki has worked with leading academic experts on all stages of potential litigation, ranging from informal discussions with regulators to preparation of expert reports. He has also written extensively, particularly in the area of energy and environmental economics.
w: http://www.analysisgroup.com/analysisgroup/Todd_Schatzki.aspx

Gergely Ujhely
Ph.D. Economics 2007
Assistant Professor, Economics Department, University of Houston
Ujhelyi's research focuses on applied theory, political economy, and environmental economics. Specific topics he has addressed are models of lobbying and collective action, campaign finance, corruption; environmental regulation, environmental agreements; and social learning.
w: http://www.class.uh.edu/faculty/gujhelyi/

Alex Wagner
Ph.D. Political Economy and Government 2005
Assistant Professor of Finance and Financial Markets, University of Zurich
Alexander F. Wagner is a Swiss Finance Institute (SFI) assistant professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. His previous degrees include a doctorate in economics and a law degree from the University of Linz, Austria. Alex has received several awards, including the ring of honor of the Republic of Austria and the Austrian Academy of Sciences' APART fellowship, awarded to outstanding researchers under the age of 35. In his research, Alex studies corporate finance and governance, as well as tradable permit markets and the political economy of the environment. He has significant economic and management consulting experience and is the co-founder and managing director of an investment boutique based in Zurich.
w: http://www.isb.uzh.ch/institut/staff/wagner.alexander/

Gernot Wagner
Ph.D. Political Economy and Government 2007
Economist, Environmental Defense Fund
Gernot Wagner is an Economist in the Climate and Air Program at the Environmental Defense Fund. He focuses on global greenhouse gas emission reduction pathways and works on developing and applying economically sound climate policy in the U.S. and internationally. He previously worked as a Consultant in the Energy Practice at the Boston Consulting Group.
w: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=22352

Fan Zhang
Ph.D. Public Policy 2007
Young Professional, The World Bank
Fan Zhang is a 2008 Young Professional at the World Bank. She was previously an Assistant Professor of Energy Policy and Economics at Pennsylvania State University. Her research has been focused on climate change policy, investment behavior under uncertainty and the welfare implications of rate of return (ROR) regulation. She has studied on the impact of electricity price uncertainty on emission permits banking, the dynamic impact of ROR regulation on emission trading when permit prices are uncertain, the relationship between electricity deregulation and the production efficiency of nuclear industry, and the economic impact of China's land conversion program.

Alix Peterson Zwane
Ph.D. Public Policy 2002
Program Officer, Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation