Modeling Environmental Pollution Cost:Implications for Measurement of Firm and Economy-Wide Value

Nick Muller, CMU
https://nickmuller.tepper.cmu.edu/Def...

Slides and Summary: https://sites.google.com/modelingtalk...

Abstract:
This talk will motivate the measurement of monetary pollution damages by demonstrating that over the past 60-70 years, measures of economic growth and productivity in the U.S. have been significantly biased by omitting air pollution damages. After diving deeply into methods and data sources, the talk will explore applications consisting of economy-wide valuation exercises in the global economy. This application shows, among other findings, that trade patterns have resulted in significant shifts in the pollution intensity of output across developed and developing economies. In a second application, tools introduced during the talk are applied to firms in the S&P 500, demonstrating that in pollution-intensive sectors such as utilities and energy, firm value is significantly impacted when considering pollution damage.

Bio:
Nick Muller is the Lester and Judith Lave Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to Carnegie Mellon, he was on the faculty at Middlebury College since the fall of 2007. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Environment and Energy Economics program and the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. He teaches microeconomics, environmental and natural resource economics, and energy policy. Broadly, Muller's research focuses on measuring pollution damage and market-based policy design. His current work focuses on: renewable energy systems, estimating air pollution and greenhouse gas damage from economic activity, the relationship between financial performance of companies and their measurable environmental performance, air pollution policy and municipal finance systems, and the use of distributional weights in benefit-cost analysis. Muller has published papers in general interest and field journals in economics as well as general interest and applied natural science journals.

#modeling #simulation #climatechange #climatechangeimpacts #environment #pollution #economics #microeconomics #healthimpacts #markets #macroeconomics #climateeconomics