M. Scott Taylor

M. Scott Taylor is the Canada Research Chair in International, Energy and Environmental Economics at the University of Calgary, Alberta. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Taylor has a PhD (1991) from Queens University in Kingston Ontario and a BA and MA from the University of Calgary. Taylor is currently on the Board of the Association for Environmental and Resource Economists, and an Associate Editor for the Journal of International Economics. He is a former Co-Editor (1999-2000) and member of the Editorial Council of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2000-2005), and served on the Editorial Board of the American Economic Review (1999-2005), and the Journal of Economic Literature. Taylor’s research focuses on the interaction of international markets and environmental outcomes. He has investigated the role of international markets in affecting strategic interaction across countries, the role world price changes play in altering incentives, and the interaction between goods and permit trade. In the area of natural resources, he has investigated how property rights regimes affect trade flows, how trade and technology affects the incentives to protect natural resources, and how natural resource over use can lead to the collapse of civilizations. His publications have appeared in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, International Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Canadian Journal of Economics, and Resource and Energy Economics. In 2003 his book International Trade and the Environment: Theory and Evidence (joint with Brian Copeland) was published by Princeton University Press.  In 2010 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Basel Switzerland for his pioneering work on trade, the environment and renewable resources.  

March 12: University of California San Diego, USA

April 15-25: CES Munich, Germany

April 17: LMU, Munich, Germany

May 3: Paris School of Economics, France. 

May 4: CREI, Barcelona, Spain. 

May 10th: University of Bologna, Italy. 

July 2-6 Deacon University Melbourne, Australia

July 7-14 University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia

Sept 6-11 Beijer Institute Stockholm, Sweden

Oct 1-5 Heidelberg, Germany 

An old lecture but the video is now available.  Innis Lecture "Environmental Crises: Past, Present and Future". Presented at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Economic Association. May 29, 2009, Toronto. View Video

"Can Green Power Save us from Climate Change?" Keynote Address to the UBC Environment and Climate Change Conference, October 2011, Vancouver, B.C.

In this talk I examine whether we can add significant quantities of Green Power (renewable energy) to the world's energy mix in order to keep climate change below the Cancun target of a 2 degrees Celcius rise.  Using recent work by the National Academies that links cumulative carbon emissions to their temperature impacts, a recent prediction for the evolution of world energy demand drawn from the petroleum industry, I calibrate a simple growth model to examine the likelihood that Green Power can save us from more than a 2 degree Celsius rise in average world temperature.  I calculate that the burden Green Power would need to carry is in the order of 650 quadrillion BTUs by mid-century, and argue that the required scale, scope, and direction of this change in the energy mix would be truly historic.  Absent an international treaty on climate change, it is unlikely governments will be willing to marshall the policies necessary to meet the 2 degree target.

 "The Spatial Economics of Green Power" Presented at Macro Economics and the Environment: Climate Change, Policy Design, and Sustainability, Univesrity of Arizona, Edward Prescott and Kerry Smith organizers, May 5th, 2011.  In this lecture I set out a new model of energy and resource use where energy and power density play key roles in determining the cost of energy sources.  I show how the concept of power density - familiar to engineers - can be placed within a simple neoclassical model of energy transitions.  Using theory and data from past transitions I examine the role government policy could and should play in affecting the rate of transition. 

M. Scott Taylor is the Canada Research Chair in International, Energy and Environmental Economics at the University of Calgary, Alberta. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Taylor has a PhD (1991) from Queens University in Kingston Ontario and a BA and MA from the University of Calgary. Taylor is currently on the Board of the Association for Environmental and Resource Economists, and an Associate Editor for the Journal of International Economics. He is a former Co-Editor (1999-2000) and member of the Editorial Council of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2000-2005), and served on the Editorial Board of the American Economic Review (1999-2005), and the Journal of Economic Literature. Taylor’s research focuses on the interaction of international markets and environmental outcomes. He has investigated the role of international markets in affecting strategic interaction across countries, the role world price changes play in altering incentives, and the interaction between goods and permit trade. In the area of natural resources, he has investigated how property rights regimes affect trade flows, how trade and technology affects the incentives to protect natural resources, and how natural resource over use can lead to the collapse of civilizations. His publications have appeared in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, International Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Canadian Journal of Economics, and Resource and Energy Economics. In 2003 his book International Trade and the Environment: Theory and Evidence (joint with Brian Copeland) was published by Princeton University Press.  In 2010 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Basel Switzerland for his pioneering work on trade, the environment and renewable resources.  

http://works.bepress.com/taylor/

#2008-03 - Buffalo Hunt: International Trade and the Virtual Extinction of the North American Bison
By M. Scott Taylor
View abstract • View this paper on RePEc

#2008-02 - Unmasking the Pollution Haven Effect
By Levinson, Arik and M. Scott Taylor
View abstract • View this paper on RePEc

#2008-01 - Trade, Tragedy and the Commons
By Copeland, Brian R. and M. Scott Taylor
View abstract • View this paper on RePEc

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