Robert Stavins is the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program, Chairman of the Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Group at the Kennedy School, Director of Graduate Studies for the Doctoral Programs in Public Policy and Political Economy and Government, Co-Chair of the Harvard Business School Kennedy School Joint Degree Programs, and Director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements.
He has been a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences, several Administrations, Members of Congress, environmental advocacy groups, the World Bank, the United Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development, state and national governments, and private foundations and firms. Before coming to Harvard, Stavins was a staff economist at the Environmental Defense Fund; and before that, he managed irrigation development in the Middle East, and spent four years working in agricultural extension in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer.
His research has focused on diverse areas of environmental economics and policy, including examinations of: market-based policy instruments; innovation and diffusion of pollution control technologies; environmental benefit valuation; and costs of carbon sequestration.
He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Northwestern University, an M.S. in agricultural economics from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.