Peer-Reviewed Economics Publications
"The Macroeconomics of Clean Energy Subsidies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management , forthcoming. (with Woongchan Jeon and Christian Traeger)
Funded by NSF Grant SES-2315408
Policy Citation: 2024 Economic Report of the President
Published version is open access
“Energy Efficiency and Directed Technical Change: Implications for Climate Change Mitigation,” Review of Economic Studies (2024) 91 (1): 192-228.
Open-Access Working Paper: CESifo (2022)
"A Generalized Uzawa Growth Theorem," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics (2024) 2(2): 336-373. (with Ryo Horii)
Open-Access Working Paper: ISER (2023)
"Understanding Climate Damages: Consumption versus Investment," European Economic Review (2024) 167: 104799. (with Stephie Fried and Matthew Gibson)
Special issue on Climate Risks and the Economy associated with a conference held at FRBSF in 2023
co-Recipient of the 2023 "Innovative Research in the Economics of Climate Change" award from IZA
Media Coverage: Bloomberg | Reuters | Washington Center for Equitable Growth (1, 2)
Open-Access Working Paper: FRBSF 2024 | CESifo (2023)
"Unemployment and the Direction of Technical Change," European Economic Review (2024) 168: 104802.
Open-Access Working Paper: CESifo (2024) | Williams (2023)
"Projecting the impacts of temperature change: The role of macroeconomic dynamics," IMF Economic Review (2023) 71: 688-718. (with Stephie Fried and Ethan Goode)
Special issue on "Transformational Recovery: Seizing Opportunities from the Crisis"
Media Coverage: Interview on Faster, Please!
Policy Citation: EPA (2025) | CBO (2025) | Council of Economic Advisers (2024)
Open-Access Working Paper: CESifo (2023)
“Historical Instruments and Contemporary Endogenous Regressors,” Journal of Development Economics (2021): 102586. (with Marc Klemp)
Media Coverage: Cherokee Gothic | Econometrics Beat | Broadstreet | Marginal Revolution (link)
Policy Citation: Nobel Prize Committee (2024)
Open-Access Working Paper: Williams (2021) | CESifo (2020)
Peer-Reviewed Interdisciplinary Publications
"Energy Availability and Economic Growth," Energy Economics (2025) 149: 108786.
Working Paper: Williams (2025)
Originally prepared as a background report for the World Bank
"The Impact of Climate Change on Fertility," Environmental Research Letters (2019) 14: 054007. (with Soheil Shayegh, Juan Moreno-Cruz, Martin Bunzl, Oded Galor, and Ken Caldeira)
Media Coverage: Vice | Daily Beast (paywall) | Daily Mail | National Affairs (link)
Policy Citation: Council of Economic Advisers (2023)
"Is faster economic growth compatible with reductions in carbon emissions? The role of diminished population growth," Environmental Research Letters (2017) 12: 014003. (with Oded Galor)
Media Coverage: EnvironmentalResearchWeb | Blog Illusio | Grist | National Affairs (link)
Policy Citation: UN Global Environmental Outlook 6, Chapter 2 (2019)
"Inequality and Fractionalization," World Development (2014) 56: 32-50. (with Ann Owen)
"Good News, Bad News and Consumer Confidence," Social Science Quarterly (2013) 94: 292-315. (with Ann Owen)
Other Publications
“Some Macroeconomic Evidence on Substitution between Clean and Dirty Energy,” accepted at AEA Papers and Proceedings (with Yang Gao and Peter Kruse-Andersen)
Funded by NSF Grant SES-2315408
“Climate Policy and The Long-Run Interest Rate: Insights from a Simple Growth Model,” accepted at AEA Papers and Proceedings (with Stephie Fried and William B. Peterman)
The 2025 U.S. Clean Competition Act: Economic and Climate Impacts. Emlab Policy Brief, January 2026 (with Kyle Meng and Ivan Rudik)
Review of "The Growth Story of the 21st Century" by Nicholas Stern. LSE Review of Books, November 10, 2025.
“The Impact of US Productivity Losses from Extreme Heat,” FRBSF Economic Letter 2024-14 (with Stephie Fried and Matthew Gibson)
“How Long Do Rising Temperatures Affect Economic Growth?” FRBSF Economic Letter 2023-15 (with Stephie Fried and Ethan Goode)
“Assessing the economic damages of climate change: the role of investment versus consumption” LSE Business Review, September 2022 (with Stephie Fried and Matthew Gibson)
"Population and Energy Consumption/Carbon Emissions: What We Know, What We Should Focus on Next," International Handbook of Population and Environment (2022), Hunter, Gray, and Veron Editors: pp. 421-428 (with Brant Liddle)
"Benefits and Costs of the Population and Demography Targets for the Post-2015 Development Agenda," (2014) Perspective paper prepared for the Post-2015 Consensus Project of the Copenhagen Consensus Center. (with Oded Galor)
Contribution to Government Reports
As the senior economist for climate and industrial policy, I was involved in writing "Chapter 5: Achieving a Net Zero Carbon Dioxide Emissions Economy in the United States" in the 2025 Economic Report of the President.