Simon Dietz

Simon Dietz is an environmental economist with particular interests in climate change and sustainable development. He has published research on a wide range of issues, including decision-making under uncertainty, questions of equity within and between generations, the links between economic growth and the environment, and the formation of international environmental treaties. He also works with governments, businesses and NGOs on topics of shared interest, such as carbon pricing, institutional investment, and insurance.

lseSimon is based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was appointed to the faculty in 2006, as a Lecturer (nowadays called an Assistant Professor) in the Department of Geography and Environment. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in 2011, and full Professor in 2015. He is also a Principal consultant at Vivid Economics, co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Vice President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, a CESifo Research Network Fellow, research lead for the Transition Pathway Initiative, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2018 he became the first recipient of the new European Award for Researchers in Environmental Economics under the Age of Forty, “a recognition given every year to the environmental economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to environmental economic thought and knowledge.”

In 2008, Simon and a small group of colleagues including Professor Dame Judith Rees and Lord Nicholas Stern founded the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, with the help of a donation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. At the same time, they received funding from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy. Simon directed the Grantham Research Institute from 2008 to 2017 and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy from 2008 to 2018.

Prior to joining the LSE faculty, Simon was a Policy Analyst at Her Majesty’s Treasury, where he worked on the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. His position was part-funded by ESRC. Among his primary responsibilities on the Stern Review was estimating the economic cost of climate change using an Integrated Assessment Model. During 2018/19 Simon held a Visiting Fellowship at the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University.

Simon graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2001 with a B.Sc. (Starred First Class Honours) in Environmental Science. He spent the academic year 1999-2000 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. He graduated from the LSE in 2002 with an M.Sc. (Distinction) in Human Geography Research, following the Environmental Regulation specialism, and from the LSE in 2006 with a Ph.D. in Geography and Environment, specialising in environmental economics.

Publications

Books

Handbook of Sustainable Development (co-edited with Giles Atkinson, Eric Neumayer and Matthew Agarwala), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2nd edition, 2014 (link to Elgaronline) — first edition 2007

The Political Economy of the Environment: an Interdisciplinary Approach (co-edited with Jonathan Michie and Christine Oughton), Abingdon: Routledge, 2011 (link to publisher’s page)

Current working papers

“Economic impacts of melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet” (with Felix Koninx)

“Optimal transition to a low-carbon economy” (with Emanuele Campiglio and Frank Venmans)

“Can a growing world be fed when the climate is changing?” (with Bruno Lanz), CESifo Working Paper 7986, 2019

“A representation result for choice under conscious unawareness” (with Oliver Walker), Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy Working Paper 68, Munich Re Programme Technical Paper 10, and Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper 59, 2011

Last journal articles

“How ambitious are oil and gas companies’ climate goals?” (with Dan Gardiner, Valentin Jahn and Jolien Noels), Science, 374(6566), 405-408, 2021

“Economic impacts of tipping points in the climate system” (with James Rising, Thomas Stoerk and Gernot Wagner), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(34), e2103081118, 2021

“Are economists getting climate dynamics right and does it matter?” (with Rick van der Ploeg, Armon Rezai and Frank Venmans), Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 8(5), 895-921, 2021

“Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon (with Gernot Wagner, David Anthoff, Maureen Cropper, Kenneth Gillingham, Ben Groom, Paul Kelleher, Frances Moore and James Stock), Nature, 590, 548-550, 2021

“Pricing ambiguity in catastrophe risk insurance” (with Falk Niehoerster), Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, 46(2), 112-132, 2021

“The endowment effect, discounting and the environment” (with Frank Venmans), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 97, 67-91, 2019

“Cumulative carbon emissions and economic policy: in search of general principles” (with Frank Venmans), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 96, 108-129, 2019

“Ambiguity and insurance: capital requirements and premiums” (with Oliver Walker), Journal of Risk and Insurance, 86(1), 213-235, 2019 (link to journal) (download accepted version)

“An assessment of climate action by high-carbon global corporations” (with Charles Fruitiere, Carlota Garcia-Manas, William Irwin, Bruno Rauis and Rory Sullivan), Nature Climate Change, 8, 1072-175, 2018

“The economics of 1.5°C climate change” (with Alex Bowen, Baran Doda, Ajay Gambhir and Rachel Warren), Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43, 18.1-18.26, 2018

“Economic growth and agricultural land conversion under uncertain productivity improvements in agriculture” (with Bruno Lanz and Tim Swanson), American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 100(2), 545–569, 2018