Don Fullerton is Gutgsell Professor of Finance (Emeritus) at the U. of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and Visiting Professor, Bren School of the Environment, U.C. Santa Barbara (2023-present). During 2017-2019, he was Editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (JAERE). His research analyzes distributional and efficiency effects of environmental and tax policies. He received a BA from Cornell, and a PhD in Economics from U.C. Berkeley. He taught at Princeton, the U. of Virginia, Carnegie Mellon, and the U. of Texas, before joining Illinois in 2008. From 1985 to 1987, he served in the U.S. Treasury Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis. From 2011 to 2014, he was a Lead Author of the 5th Assessment Report, U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

      After twenty years of research on economic effects of tax policy, Fullerton started on topics in environmental economics and policy. He analyzed household behavior in response to a price per bag of garbage at the curb by measuring not only the reduction in landfill disposal but also the increase in recycling. His other research has studied economic effects of climate policy, including energy efficiency mandates, renewable portfolio standards, cap-and-trade permits for greenhouse gas emissions, or a carbon tax. In each case, he studies the likely distribution of the burdens of policy as well as effects on the environment, on cost efficiency, and on overall social welfare. Current research is about the “Circular Economy”, including policies to reduce virgin materials extraction and to design products that can more easily be recycled or that have longer product lives, all to reduce negative effects of extraction, production, and disposal. 

Contact Information:    dfullert@illinois.edu

    Finance Department 

    University of Illinois

    515 East Gregory Drive

    Champaign, IL 61820