Public Policy

Alain de Janvry is an economist working on international economic development, with expertise principally in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle-East, and the Indian subcontinent. Fields of work include poverty analysis, rural development, quantitative analysis of development policies, impact analysis of social programs, technological innovations in agriculture, and the management of common property resources. He has worked with many international development agencies, including FAO, IFAD, the World Bank, UNDP, ILO, the CGIAR, and the Inter-American Development Bank as well as foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller and Kellogg. His main objective in teaching, research, and work with development agencies is the promotion of human welfare, including understanding the determinants of poverty and analyzing successful approach to improve well-being and promote sustainability in resource use.

Michael's research in economics has focused largely on aspects of modeling individual choice behavior, with applications to demand forecasting, inducing conservation, environmental regulation and economic valuation. He is a leading authority on the methodology of non-market valuation using techniques of both revealed and stated preference. A team of two dozen prominent experts led by professors from the California Climate Change Center released a new report in early 2006 on the economic implications of meeting global warming emissions reduction targets established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. The governor's goals include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 2000 levels by the year 2010, and to 1990 levels by 2020. "Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in California," the first report in a series of economic and technology assessments, finds that just eight policy strategies can take California halfway to the governor's 2020 targets, while increasing the Gross State Product by approximately $60 billion and creating more than 20,000 new jobs.

Dan Kammen founded and directs the unique Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, cited by many as the only ‘one stop’ site for energy science and engineering projects that are merged with energy finance and economics, sociology, market, and environmental impact studies. Recent RAEL contributions include: (i) significantly supporting and strengthening the burgeoning solar photovoltaic industries in East Africa, that have become the free-market model for a large number of nations; (ii) bringing the potential of continent-wide sustainable biofuel industries with major energy and health impacts to the attention of world leaders; (iii) highlighting the job benefits of clean energy investments, a story that became central to the adoption of clean energy standards in a number of states as well as a focal point of several national election campaigns; and (iv) focusing national attention on the federal under-investment in energy research, development, and deployment. He is co-author of Should We Risk It? Exploring Environmental, Health and Technological Problem Solving (Princeton University Press, 1999) and over 100 technical and refereed publications.

Alain de Janvry is an economist working on international economic development, with expertise principally in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle-East, and the Indian subcontinent. Fields of work include poverty analysis, rural development, quantitative analysis of development policies, impact analysis of social programs, technological innovations in agriculture, and the management of common property resources. He has worked with many international development agencies, including FAO, IFAD, the World Bank, UNDP, ILO, the CGIAR, and the Inter-American Development Bank as well as foundations such as Ford, Rockefeller and Kellogg. His main objective in teaching, research, and work with development agencies is the promotion of human welfare, including understanding the determinants of poverty and analyzing successful approach to improve well-being and promote sustainability in resource use.

Michael's research in economics has focused largely on aspects of modeling individual choice behavior, with applications to demand forecasting, inducing conservation, environmental regulation and economic valuation. He is a leading authority on the methodology of non-market valuation using techniques of both revealed and stated preference. A team of two dozen prominent experts led by professors from the California Climate Change Center released a new report in early 2006 on the economic implications of meeting global warming emissions reduction targets established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. The governor's goals include reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 2000 levels by the year 2010, and to 1990 levels by 2020. "Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in California," the first report in a series of economic and technology assessments, finds that just eight policy strategies can take California halfway to the governor's 2020 targets, while increasing the Gross State Product by approximately $60 billion and creating more than 20,000 new jobs.