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Carolyn Fischer

Biography

Carolyn Fischer was born in Ontario, later moving to the United States. In 1997, Fischer earned a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbour. Fischer was a staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers to the President from 1994-1995. She then went on to join Resources for the Future (RFF) in 1997, where she is now a senior fellow. Fischer was an EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow from 2014-2016. She later went on to be the Marks Visiting Professor at Gothenburg University from 2017-2018, a Dahrendof Visiting Follow at the London School of Economics, a UCE3 Senior Fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara, and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She is also a consultant for the World Bank Group, a staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisors, and has taught at John Hopkins University.

Having previously been on the board of directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Fischer is now apart of expert advisory board for the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin, the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Economics for Energy, and Environmental Defence Fund. Now becoming one of the world’s leading environmental economists, she is currently a professor at the Vrije Universiteit-Amsterdam. There she is currently involved as a thesis supervisor while teaching classes in environmental and natural resource economics, as well as policy instrument design. She is notably known for being one of 20 academics working as a Canada 150 Research Chair in Climate Economics, Innovation and Policy at the University of Ottawa. Along with being a senior fellow for RFF, Dr. Fischer is also a Tinbergen Institute affiliate, a CESifo Research Network fellow, a fellow with the European Commission at Venice’s Eni Enrico Mattei foundation, and a member of Environment Canada’s Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network. Fischer also serves on the scientific board of Economics for Energy and the economics advisory board of the Environmental Defense Fund. She is also apart of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics, as both vice-president and council member. Fisher is co-editor of Environmental and Resource Economics, also on the editorial board of the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy and the International Review of Environmental an Resource Economics.

A majority of Dr. Fischer’s work revolves around climate policy, including carbon pricing systems and emissions taxes. Dr. Fischer has said that she is fond of working in Canada as the federal government is a global leader regarding climate change policies, stating that “Canada has made a strong commitment to address greenhouse gas emissions…That makes it an exciting time to be working on climate policy in Canada, especially from an environmental economist’s perspective.”

Awards

Fischer has been the recipient of a 2018 prize for her work as a Canada 150 Research Chair in Climate Economics, Innovation and Policy regarding spatial economics.

Research

Dr. Fischer has become a global leader in environmental economics for her research in climate change policy. Fischer has written and co-written over 50 academic articles around environmental economics. Her research has consistently surrounded environmental policy and modelling tools, specifically climate and energy policy. Fischer addresses the management of the environment and natural resources, often incorporating microeconomic theory into her papers. Through her research Fischer has addressed a variety of topics including resource management, renewable energy, carbon leakage, cap and trade systems, and others. She also has written about energy efficiency programs, the Clean Development Mechanism, and international policy and trade. Regarding natural resource management and use, Fischer has contributed paper regarding eco-certification, wildlife conservation, invasive species, and technological innovation. Her recent research has been surrounding international trade and climate policy.

“Competing environmental labels” (2014)

This paper uses an economic model to simulate ecolabeling competition, with strategic environmental standards set by non-governmental organization (NGO) and industry-sponsored labeling organizations. Fischer and Lyon acknowledge the discrepancy between NGO and industry standards required for ecolabels. Industry-sponsored label standards are less stringent, resulting in less environmental improvements required by firms to attain an ecolabel. Ecolabeling techniques are used by companies to appeal to consumer preferences for green products. Firms pay to make environmental improvements in order to achieve either a high standard certification, a low standard certification, or no certification. This paper finds that multiple labels increases industry profits and that the addition of an NGO label decreases environmental damages; however, in the case of an NGO label being added when an industry-sponsored label is in place, the NGO standards change relative to the industry standards. It is stated that governments cannot rely on the invisible hand regarding ecolabeling products, as the environmental performances of firms can both increase and decrease with the introduction of industry-sponsored labels.

“Does trade help or hinder the conservation of natural resources?” (2009)

This paper studies the impact that trade has on the conservation of natural resources. Fischer finds that while the overuse and exploitation of a resource can be supported by its trade, resource conservation can also be encouraged. This is determined by trade regulations, as well as the rate at which the resource is replenished. This paper suggests that trade-restrictive measures can have negative consequences, despite being put in place to protect the resource. Rich countries can profit from trade liberalization, trade can lead to the depletion of natural resource stocks, and trade bans can be necessary; however, this paper argues that these are all situational, influenced by the renewability of the resource and secondary problems within the country.

“Emissions pricing, spillovers, and public investment in environmentally friendly technologies” (2008)

This paper uses an economic model to represent interactions between environmental policies, research and development (R&D) externalities, and social returns to innovation. It is suggested that mitigation policy is necessary for environmental goals to be met, with technological policy used alongside mitigation policy to increase efficiency; therefore, technological innovation can only be justified when there are mitigation policies in effect. This is because social support for R&D is dependant on the established emissions pricing policies, as environmentally friendly technology is often thought to reduce the costs of emissions abatement for consumers. There will be no social support for environmentally friendly technologies if emissions are unpriced, as there will be no public incentive to reduce the cost of emissions abatement.