Segerson

Professor Kathleen Segerson Published in Science

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Professor Segerson, a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut, has made significant contributions to the field of environmental economics. Her research focuses on the incentive effects of environmental policy instruments, particularly on legal rules and principles applied to environmental problems.

Dr. Segerson recently served as the lead author in an article published in the journal Science, where she and her colleagues highlight the hidden costs of green subsidies. They warn that while these subsidies can promote sustainability, they may also lead to increased consumption and market distortions. The authors advocate for clear end dates and cautious application to avoid long-term reliance and negative spillover effects.

As described in UConn Today:

Green Subsidies May Have Hidden Costs, Experts Warn

Some subsidies that appear to encourage sustainability are not so simple

Government subsidies for business practices and processes should be approached with caution, even when they seem to be environmentally friendly, writes a group of scientists and economists in this week’s Policy Forum in the journal Science.

They argue that subsidies can alter market pressures, leading to unintended consequences that not only perpetuate harmful subsidies over time but also diminish the overall effectiveness of those intended to promote environmental sustainability.

Therefore, when they must be used, subsidies should have clear end-dates, advise the authors.

“We’ve got this odd juxtaposition of trying to get rid subsidies in some sectors, and then ramping up subsidies in others,” says lead author Kathleen Segerson, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut. “The question that interested me was: is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

The full article is online at

https://today.uconn.edu/2024/10/green-subsidies-may-have-hidden-costs-experts-warn/

Professor Segerson featured on Harvard Environmental Economics Podcast

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Professor Kathleen Segerson was featured recently on the Harvard Environmental Economics Program podcast “Environmental Insights.”

Her conversation with Robert Stavins is the subject of his blog post The Challenge Posed to U.S. Climate Policy by Political Polarization: 

“In my podcast series, “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program,” I’ve enjoyed chatting with economists who have been leaders in the realm of environmental, energy, and resource economics.  My most recent guest fits in that group, because I was joined by Kathleen Segerson, who in addition to her academic and scholarly research and teaching, has served on numerous state, national, and international advisory boards.  The podcast is produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.  You can listen to our complete conversation here.“

 

The full post is available online at: https://www.robertstavinsblog.org/2023/06/01/the-challenge-posed-to-u-s-climate-policy-by-political-polarization/

Professor Segerson Inducted into the National Academy of Sciences

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Professor Segerson Signs the “Book of Registry” at the NAS Induction Ceremony  [photo courtesy of the National Academy of Sciences]
Professor Kathleen Segerson was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on Friday, April 28, as part of the 160th annual meeting of the NAS.

Professor Segerson signed the “Book of Registry” at the Presentation Ceremony, an annual tradition to officially induct members into the Academy.

“Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,400 members and 500 international members, of which approximately 190 have received Nobel prizes.”

“The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private, non-profit society of distinguished scholars. Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. The NAS is committed to furthering science in America, and its members are active contributors to the international scientific community. Approximately 500 current and deceased members of the NAS have won Nobel Prizes, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, founded in 1914, is today one of the premier international journals publishing the results of original research.”

Information about the National Academy of Science and its members may be found online at: http://www.nasonline.org/

Professor Segerson Elected to National Academy of Sciences

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Congratulations to Professor Kathleen Segerson, who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences!

“Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,400 members and 500 international members, of which approximately 190 have received Nobel prizes.”

“The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private, non-profit society of distinguished scholars. Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. The NAS is committed to furthering science in America, and its members are active contributors to the international scientific community. Approximately 500 current and deceased members of the NAS have won Nobel Prizes, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, founded in 1914, is today one of the premier international journals publishing the results of original research.”

Information about the National Academy of Science and the newly elected 2022 members may be found online at: http://www.nasonline.org/

Economics Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Teaching

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The Provost’s office at the University of Connecticut regularly recognizes faculty members with excellent teaching evaluations commending them as achieving “excellence in teaching”.

A number of faculty members in the economics department have received this recognition in the past year:  Professors Talia Bar, Ken Couch, Delia Furtado, Paul Hallwood, Olivier Morand, Susan Randolph, Kathy Segerson, Mikhael Shor, Owen Svalestad, and Jackie Zhao.

Congratulations to these economics faculty for their important contributions to the educational mission of UConn!

Zheng Xu Defends Dissertation, Stays at Harvard

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ZhengDefenseOn August 28th, Zheng Xu defended his dissertation, “Developing in the Era of Globalization: The Case of China” written under the supervision of major advisor Professor Delia Furtado and associate advisors, Professor Nishith Prakash, Professor Kathleen Segerson, and Professor Richard Freeman from Harvard University.

Zheng’s dissertation studies how globalization has reshaped China in terms of the labor market, environment, and media. The first chapter examines how rising demand for Chinese exports affects Chinese labor markets. Particular emphasis is given to how the massive internal migration in China shapes the labor market consequences of trade. The second chapter studies whether party-newspapers in China are less likely to report local pollution events and whether the difference distorts households’ self-protective behaviors against potential health risks. The third chapter uses the list of environmental goods endorsed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to test whether export production improves air quality in China through adoption of green inputs.

Since September of 2013, Zheng has been a research fellow in the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. In 2014, he received a CLAS Graduate Fellowship which helped support his time at Harvard. Zheng has already started a new position as postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities.

Congratulations, Zheng!

Professors Miceli and Segerson Cited in The Economist

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micelisegersonAn article on land assembly in developing countries published in the May 2nd-8th 2015 edition of The Economist cited a paper by economics professors Thomas Miceli and Kathleen Segerson. The article discusses problems developing countries face in assembling land for large-scale economic development projects.

The author writes, “A theoretical model set out in a paper published in 2011 by Thomas Miceli and Kathleen Segerson of the University of Connecticut shows that when a buyer has to negotiate in sequence with sellers of contiguous plots of land, the price of each successive sale will rise. Landowners know the project cannot proceed unless the buyer acquires all the plots he needs. The more he acquires, the greater the cost of abandoning the project. The ransom those yet to sell can demand increases accordingly.”

The article referred to is “Land Assembly and the Holdout Problem Under Sequential Bargaining,” which was published in the American Law and Economics Review, Vol. 14 (2012): 372-390.

Prof. Segerson appointed to NAS climate change committee

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segersonProfessor Kathy Segerson was recently appointed to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) National Research Council (NRC) Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) (http://www.globalchange.gov/) was mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990 to “assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change.” Every four years it prepares the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which provides an overview of what is currently known about the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future.  In May 2014, the USGCRP released the third NCA (http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/). The NRC Committee provides ongoing and focused advice to the USGCRP, including formal reviews of the NCAs.  It is comprised of 20 individuals from academia, government, and the private sector, with a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including economics, engineering, risk communication, sociology and ecology. Professor Segerson’s appointment to the Committee is for three years.

Econ Dept. Well-Represented in Oxford Handbook of Land Economics

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Three Department of Economics faculty members have published papers in the recently released Oxford Handbook of Land Economics, edited by Joshua Duke and Junjie Wu. The Oxford Handbook Series is a collection of specialized volumes, each containing papers from a particular area of economic research.

A chapter on “Regulatory Takings,” by Professors Thomas Miceli and Kathleen Segerson, offers a more general analysis of government actions that reduce private property values, pointing out that the difference between these partial “takings” and outright seizures of private property is largely a matter of degree.  Their model offers a unified approach to the wide variety of issues associated with zoning, environmental and safety regulations, historic landmark designation, requirements to provide access for the disabled, and many other public restrictions on private land use.  In addition to their economic analysis, they review key elements of the case law and legal literature on regulatory takings.

In another chapter, titled “Open Space Preservation: Direct Controls and Fiscal Incentives,” Professor Dennis Heffley and his co-author Ekaterina Gnedenko (Lecturer, Tufts University) review the economic literature on various types of land use controls, especially programs designed to protect and preserve open space.  They also develop and simulate a model showing that state grants to local governments, intended to reduce local fiscal pressure to permit more development, may actually result in more land being zoned for development and a reduction in open space.  An econometric analysis of fiscal data and satellite-image land use data for Connecticut towns further attests to the policy problem illustrated by the simulations