Tag: James Stock

“Time Flies When You’re Having Fun”

This blog post is quite a departure from my typical ones about climate change economics and policy and/or my latest podcast.  It’s actually stimulated by comments that were offered by my colleague, Jim Stock, at the conclusion of this past Wednesday’s Harvard Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy. 

At the beginning of the seminar, before introducing the day’s excellent presenter, Anna Russo, I announced two changes/improvements in the Seminar starting in the spring semester.  One is that after 35 years of hosting the seminar series – first solo for 2 years, then 28 years with Marty Weitzman, and most recently 5 years with Jim Stock (that’s 70 semesters and a total of more than 500 seminars) – I was delighted to state that my Harvard Kennedy School colleague, Wolfram Schlenker, had agreed to take over for me in the spring, and co-host the Seminar with Jim.  That’s one of two upgrades.  (No, I’m not retiring, and I will be teaching my environmental economics and policy course as usual in the spring semester).

The other upgrade is that it will become the Harvard-MIT Joint Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy, meeting every week on Thursdays, 4:30-5:45 pm, but alternating locations between Harvard and MIT.  The first seminar in the spring semester will be on Thursday, February 5th.

At the end of Wednesday’s seminar, after Anna’s presentation, I made my usual closing comment that the spring semester schedule will be sent out soon.  But before I could stand up to leave, Jim Stock surprised me (and presumably others in the room) by standing up, moving to the front of the room, and expressing his thanks for my having founded and led the Seminar for the past 35 years (as well as making some broader, very generous comments about my contributions to environmental economics and policy at Harvard and beyond).  Jim knows that I am resistant to being acknowledged publicly, let alone celebrated, so I’m not going to compound matters by repeating any of it here.

So, then, what’s the reason for this blog post today?  It’s quite simple.  When Jim spoke at the end of the seminar, he read a list of the authors and papers from the very first semester that I had co-hosted with Marty Weitzman in the fall of 1992, and it turned out that the list included to future Nobel laureates, Bill Nordhaus and Bob Solow (plus one who should have been – in my view – Marty himself). 

I’ve inserted the schedule below for your reading pleasure.  Topics in environmental economics at that time were clearly much broader than today, when the profession is focused (albeit not exclusively) on climate change.  For some of you, reviewing the schedule below will bring back memories, but I hope for everyone, it will be of interest.

Share

Inviting you to a Celebration of the Contributions of Martin Weitzman to Environmental Economics

Even the shortest of short lists of scholars who have made the greatest contributions to environmental economics would include my colleague, Professor Martin L. Weitzman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University.  His seminal contributions are legendary, including within the literatures of efficient policy instrument choice under uncertainty, optimal economic growth, biodiversity, long-term discounting, and the economics of catastrophic climate change.

In a future blog post, I will offer a fuller essay on Martin Weitzman’s great contributions to environmental economics, but today I wish to alert the readers of my blog that we – the Harvard Environmental Economics Program – are holding an important event at Harvard on the occasion of Professor Weitzman’s “retirement” (as if Marty will ever really retire!).  The event, “Frontiers in Environmental Economics and Policy:  A Symposium in Honor of Martin L. Weitzman,” will take place on Thursday, October 11th, 2018, from 3:00 to 5:30 pm (with a reception to follow), at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Nye Conference Room on the 5th floor of the Taubman Building.

The Keynote Speaker will be William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, who will speak on “The Intellectual Footprint of Martin Weitzman in Environmental Economics.”

Following Bill’s keynote address, I will have the privilege of moderating a panel of scholars, who themselves have made important contributions to environmental economics, and who will address various elements of Marty Weitzman’s scholarly work.  The panel will consist of the following distinguished participants (in alphabetical order):

I hope you will be able to join us for this very special afternoon.  The symposium is public, but if you would like to attend, it is necessary that you RSVP at https://heep.hks.harvard.edu/weitzman, or by contacting Casey Billings via email or by phone at 617-384-8415.

Finally, I’m pleased to say that the Harvard Environmental Economics Program will host the day’s events with support from the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School.

Share