Joseph E. Stiglitz

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Speaker: Joseph E. Stiglitz, University Professor, Columbia University

Although nearly all economists consider a carbon-pricing policy — either in the form of a carbon tax or a carbon emissions trading system — to be necessary to accomplish ambitious CO2 emissions reductions in large, complex economies, most such economists would also recognize such a carbon-pricing policy will not be sufficient. This is partly because of other market failures that get in the way of price signals, such as principal-agent problems and information spillovers of the results of research and development activities. Beyond this, there are significant political impediments to implementing carbon pricing in many jurisdictions. Professor Stiglitz will talk about this and much more in a conversation with Harvard Professor Robert Stavins.

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For more information, email the Harvard Project Program Coordinator at casey_billings@hks.harvard.edu.

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the (U.S. president's) Council of Economic Advisers. In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 and received that university's highest academic rank (university professor) in 2003. In 2011, Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz's work focuses on income distribution, risk, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization. He is the author of numerous books and several bestsellers.