R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

We build on the small literature on this topic, e.g., the pioneering work of John Broome www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1... wwnorton.com/books/climat... to discuss where population ethics issues will show up in benefit-cost analysis, and to explore what analysts might do to address them.

The paper doesn't have all the answers. Our goal is to identify and discuss major issues in this new frontier of regulatory benefit-cost analysis.

We show that, as benefit-cost analysis is increasingly used to assess phenomena that impact life and death many years in the future, such as climate change, making choices around how to deal with critical population ethics issues becomes unavoidable.

Population ethics poses a number of difficult questions that have been largely ignored in the practice of regulatory benefit-cost analysis.

Valuing statistical absences? Why benefit-cost analysis cannot avoid population ethics Policies subject to BCA sometimes prevent premature deaths. If survivors would later have children, those policies not only prevent deaths; they cause…

🚨New Paper🚨

Valuing statistical absences? Why benefit-cost analysis cannot avoid population ethics"

My new paper with regulatory legal scholar extraordinaire Andy Stawasz is out in Ecological Economics!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We had an all-star group of job market candidates this year and an all-star job market coordinator @rmetcalfe.bsky.social . Great set of placements in a really tough year. Proud to be a part of this group!

"The uncertainty that is baked into this crisis is all the more reason to take urgent and decisive action to address it."

Carbon majors and the scientific case for climate liability - Nature A transparent and reproducible scientific framework is introduced to formalize how trillions in economic losses are attributable to the extreme heat caused by emissions from fossil fuel companies, whi...

NEW: Fossil fuel firms like Chevron and Exxon owe the world trillions of dollars. Today in @nature.com, @jsmankin.bsky.social and I show economic losses from rising heat waves directly traceable to these firms, providing scientific support for climate accountability.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you, Jake!

Yes! Let me know when you’re in town!

Haha deal! Sounds intriguing…

Thank you, Manuel!

Yes! My new department head!

Thank you, Fran!

Job Market Done ✅ I'm thrilled to announce that I will be an Assistant Professor in Economics at Bentley University this fall.

I'm excited to join a great group of colleagues and to move back to Boston!

New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause:
- 15.2m deaths from AIDS
- 2.2m deaths from TB
- 7.9 additional child deaths

Mississippi State Univ. is hiring a tenure-track Econ Assistant Prof w/ August start!

Open field; pref. for applied micro & teaching PhD Micro I & II (Micro II this fall).

Apply: MSU site & www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing.php?JOE_ID=2025-01_111475768

Please repost—it's an off-cycle search. Thanks!

There are days in life that shake you.

I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University
& academic career... 1/🧵

Essential reading for folks interested in the economics of climate change. Check it out!

Planning your climate or environment syllabus? I like to show short videos so students & I can visualize some of the things we're talking about. Here are some of the ones I like:

A chart in three parts showing data on child mortality to make the points that "The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time."

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.

All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems.

We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵

Opinion | What Economists Could Learn From George Costanza Their economic models produced a disaster, but they doubled down.

What’s important about this piece is economic theory, when translated into practice, needs to overcorrect for the actual impacts to people’s lives that efficiency driven by theory create. It’s not “winners COULD compensate losers” it’s “winners DO compensate losers”.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/o...

Valuing Excess Deaths Caused by Climate Change Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

You might be interested in my article on this topic with Geoff Heal: www.nber.org/papers/w30648 as well as my JMP: rdanielbressler.com/s/JMP.pdf

Synthesis of evidence yields high social cost of carbon due to structural model variation and uncertainties | PNAS Estimating the cost to society from a ton of CO2—termed the social cost of carbon (SCC)—requires connecting a model of the climate system with a re...

Excited to announce a new @pnas.org publication on the Social Cost of Carbon. We integrate evidence from the literature and expert survey to provide an SCC distribution inclusive of both parametric and structural uncertainties. Our mean 2020 value is $283 per ton CO2
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Yep! bsky.app/profile/rdbr...

Young people more susceptible to heat-related death, study finds A new Columbia University Climate School study discovered that young people may be most at risk of heat-related deaths. CBS News environmental correspondent David Schechter reports.

Extreme heat is preferentially killing young adults and small children, finds a new study co-led by @rdbressler.bsky.social and @ajsw.info with Columbia Climate School's Radley Horton, @adamsobel.bsky.social, @ccivanovich.bsky.social (now NASAGISS), Jeffrey Shrader, and colleagues. Via CBS News.

Save the date: 9th Conference on Econometric Models of Climate Change (EMCC) will be at the University of Victoria BC, Canada, Aug. 27-28, 2025.

Come if you want to learn about climate and econometrics (or just want to visit Vancouver Island...) Formal call for papers to follow in 2025. #EconSky

Heat disproportionately kills young people: Evidence from wet-bulb temperature in Mexico Analysis of temperature exposure and microdata finds the majority of heat-related deaths are among people under 35 years old.

🚨"Heat disproportionally kills young people: Evidence from Wet-Bulb Temperature Exposure" My new paper co-lead with @ajsw.info is out today!

Using 20 years of nationwide mortality microdata + wet-bulb temperature, we uncovered fascinating new findings. Thread 👇

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

See below for a really nice writeup from @columbiaclimate.bsky.social on my recent @science.org article co-lead with @ajsw.info

Here is my thread summarizing the study: bsky.app/profile/rdbr...