2024 FELLOWS

William D. Nordhaus

William Nordhaus is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Economics at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico (which is part of the United States). He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1963 and his Ph.D. in Economics in 1967 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018 “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis.” He lives in New Haven with his wife, Barbara Nordhaus.

Nordhaus served on the faculty of Yale University from 1967 until his retirement in 2024. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He served as President of the American Economic Association in 2015-2016.

From 1977 to 1979, he was a Member of President Carter's Council of Economic Advisers. In that position, his portfolio was the environment, tax policy, and international affairs. From 1986 to 1988, he was the Provost of Yale University. He was Chair of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank for 2013-2015. He has served on several committees of the National Academy of Sciences on topics including climate change, environmental accounting, risk, economic data, and the role of the tax system in climate change.

Professor Nordhaus’s research included wage and price behavior, health economics, augmented national accounting, the political business cycle, and productivity. He is the author of many books and articles, among them Is Growth Obsolete? (with James Tobin), Warming the World, The Climate Casino, and (joint with Paul Samuelson) the classic textbook, Economics, now in its nineteenth edition. His latest book is The Spirit of Green (Princeton University Press, 2021).

His most recent work focuses on the economics of climate change, developing models that integrate the science, economics, and policies necessary to slow warming. These studies include the DICE and RICE models of the economics of climate change, which have been widely used in research on studies of climate-change economics and policies. Among his most important contributions is developing approaches to estimate the appropriate emissions price for greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are often used to guide carbon taxation and cap-and-trade policies now in place in more than 60 countries.

On Sigma Xi:
For almost a century and a half, Sigma Xi has played an important role in encouraging cooperation and excellence in American science and engineering. My experience with Sigma Xi has been primarily with its fine publication, American Scientist. The editors at the journal took a big risk in publishing one of the first expert surveys in climate change (W.D. Nordhaus, "Expert opinion on climatic change." American scientist 82, no. 1 (1994): 45-51). This was controversial in even considering the economic aspects of the “CO2 problem,” as it was then known. Looking back on this after 30 years, I am surprised to see that the results of the survey – including the large uncertainties – are close to the current meta-analyses in this area. I particularly enjoyed working with Tom Malone during his active presidency. I am honored to be selected as a Sigma Xi Fellow in light of its outstanding contributions.

2024 FELLOWS

William D. Nordhaus

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