The literature on the impacts of biofuels on food prices is characterized by contradictory findings and a wide range of estimates. To bring more clarity to this issue, we review studies on U.S. corn ethanol production released between 2008 and 2013. Normalizing corn price impacts by the change...

It has often been stated that current studies aimed at understanding the magnitude of optimal climate policy fail to adequately capture the potential for “catastrophic” impacts of climate change. While economic modeling exercises to date do provide evidence that potential climate...

The “social cost of carbon” (SCC) is the present value of the future stream of damages from one additional ton of carbon emissions in a particular year. This paper develops a simple model for calculating the SCC and compares estimates of the SCC under certainty and uncertainty. Our model...

Although existing economic research is informative with regard to the importance of including potential 'catastrophic' climate change impacts in the analysis of GHG mitigation benefits, the generic and abstract form of the 'catastrophe' implemented has led to a lack of specific policy...

We use panel data on fossil fuel fired power plants to examine the impact of Phase I of the Title IV SO2 trading program on electric utility employment. We find little evidence that power plants had significant decreases in employment during Phase I relative to non–Phase I power plants. This...

The literature on the impacts of biofuels on agricultural commodity prices is characterized by contradictory findings. We review studies published between 2007 and 2014 that estimate the effects of U.S. corn ethanol policy on corn prices and find estimates ranging from nil to over 80%. Such...

In this reply to the comment by Gerlagh, we confirm an error in our estimate of the certainty-equivalent social cost of carbon (SCC) reported in Newbold et al. (2013), and we discuss the underlying conceptual difficulties that arise in conducting a social welfare analysis when preferences are...

The literature on the impacts of biofuels on food prices is characterized by contradictory findings and a wide range of estimates. To bring more clarity to this issue, we review studies on U.S. corn ethanol expansion released between 2008 and 2013. Normalizing corn price impacts by the increase...

The US government recently developed a range of values representing the monetized global damages associated with an incremental increase in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, commonly referred to as the social cost of carbon (SCC). These values are currently used in benefit--cost analyses to assess...