The Spirit of Green: The Economics of Collisions and Contagions in a Crowded World

In ‘The Spirit of Green’, Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus describes a new way of green thinking that would help us overcome our biggest challenges without sacrificing economic prosperity, in large part by accounting for the spillover costs of economic collisions. In a discussion that ranges from the history of the environmental movement to the Green New Deal, Nordhaus explains how the spirit of green thinking provides a compelling and hopeful perspective on modern life. He shows how rethinking economic efficiency, sustainability, politics, profits, taxes, individual ethics, corporate social responsibility, finance, and more would improve the effectiveness and equity of our society.

About the Speaker:

William Nordhaus is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. His major work focuses on the economics of climate change, developing models that integrated the science, economics, and policies necessary to slow warming. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018 "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis." From 1977 to 1979, Professor Nordhaus served as a Member of President Carter's Council of Economic Advisers. From 1986 to 1988, he served as the Provost of Yale University and was President of the American Economic Association from 2015 to 2016. Professor Nordhaus completed his undergraduate work at Yale University in 1963 and received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1967 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.