About
Dr. Manuel Linsenmeier is an environmental economist. He works as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University. His main research interests are climate change and sustainable development. Manuel is particularly interested in the costs of climate change, adaptation to climate change, and policy instruments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His research interests also include the effect of weather and climate on ecological systems and the use and benefits of weather forecasts.
Manuel holds a PhD in Environmental Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His PhD thesis won the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award by the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. His work has been published in leading interdisciplinary journals (e.g. Nature Climate Change) and economics field journals (e.g. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management). Prior to his current position Manuel worked at the Climate School at Columbia University, the International Monetary Fund, and the international thinktank adelphi. In addition to his research and policy advice, Manuel is an experienced teacher of economics and environmental science.
News
October 28, 2024: Happy to share a new working paper: Deforestation and structural change - The case of tourism in Brazil. Available here.
September 14, 2024: New working paper published today: The diffusion of climate policies in the US. Available in the IMF Working Paper Series here.
August 1, 2024: After two years at Columbia I have moved on to the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University.
June 1, 2024: Looking forward to my research stay in Germany. I’ll be visiting ifo in Munich and also presenting work at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, ZEW Mannheim, and Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
May 28, 2024: This week I’ll be presenting new research findings at the Summer Conference of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists in Washington DC. I’ll present on Friday at 8:30 am in the session Deforestation. My co-author Jeff Shrader presents joint work on Friday at 3 pm in the session Temperature and Weather.
April 9, 2024: The program of our workshop on Global Inequalities in Weather Forecasts on May 16th is online. You can find it here, with a link to register.
February 14, 2024: I’ll be visiting CES ifo in Munich from June 17th-28th. Looking forward to making new connections and discussing research ideas with Maria Waldinger and colleagues.
January 25, 2024: Workshop announcement! Join us for a one-day event at Columbia University on Global Inequalities in Weather Forecasts. We aim to bring together researchers and practitioners from meteorology, economics, and other disciplines to discuss issues and solutions related to this topic. The workshop is organized by Adam Sobel, Jeff Shrader, and myself. Call for papers with information about registration here. You can also reach out to me by email with any questions.
January 4, 2024: If you are at the ASSA conference this week, you can see joint work on Forecasts and Climate Mortality Estimates with Jeff Shrader, Derek Lemoine, and Laura Bakkensen presented in the session Weather and Climate on Saturday, Jan 6th, at 2:30 pm.
December 7, 2023: New working paper together with Jeff Shrader published today: Global inequalities in weather forecasts. Available here. Comments welcome.
December 4, 2023: Next week I will participate in a workshop on Earth Observation Data for the Social Sciences hosted by GESIS. I will give an invited keynote on Climate change impacts and adaptation: What satellite data tell us about our vulnerabilities and responses. Looking forward to three insightful days in Cologne, Germany.
November 30, 2023: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the USA has released its newest Report on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases. My work with Gregor Schwerhoff and Adil Mohommad on the international diffusion of climate policy features prominently on page 16. You can find the report here. The full-text of our paper can be accessed here and a short summary here.
November 11, 2023: Today I published a new working paper: Global variation in the optimal temperature for recreational outdoor activity. You can read this early version of the paper here; comments by email are very welcome.
November 9, 2023: New paper published in the Journal of Macroeconomics: Seasonal temperature variability and economic cycles. I show that seasonal cycles of GDP can be attributed to a large extent to temperature variability. Open access here. A longer thread about the paper on X can be found here.
October 10, 2023: Looking forward to presenting results from a study on the economic costs of climate change in the UK together with lead-author James Rising at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) of the United Kingdom today. You can find the final report here.
September 13, 2023: In two weeks, on September 27th, I will present results on global inequalities in weather forecasts at the Columbia Climate School Postdoctoral Research Symposium. You can find more about the Climate School Postdoctoral Research Program here. Applications for the next cycle are currently accepted, see here.
July 27, 2023: New paper out in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management: Temperature variability and long-run economic development. In this study, I quantify the economic costs of temperature fluctuations at daily, seasonal, and interannual time scales. My results suggest that especially poor countries will suffer from larger temperature fluctuations in scenarios of future climate change.
July 24, 2023: Another conference this week, the AAEA annual meeting in Washington DC. I'll present new work on climate change and pollination ecosystem service on Tuesday, 25th, at 2:45 pm, in the session with the great title: Human vs. Nature: the Economic Value of Bees and Trees. See full program here.
July 3, 2023: In a new paper in Nature Climate Change published today, me, Adil Mohommad, and Gregor Schwerhoff quantify the benefits of leadership in climate policy. The full paper is available here. We have also written a short and accessible policy brief here. Temporarily free access to the two papers here and here.
June 25, 2023: Next week I will be attending the EAERE summer conference in Limassol, Cyprus. I will present new work on pollination ecosystem services in California (Wed. 14:30, Environmental Policy and Ecosystems). I will also give an overview over my PhD thesis in a dedicated session (Thu. 14:30, EAERE awards). Full program here.
May 26, 2023: Looking forward to presenting new work on temperature and outdoor recreation next week at the AERE summer conference in Portland, Maine. I’ll present on Thursday, June 1st, at 10:45 in the session Temperature. Program here.
May 18, 2023: Together with Adam Sobel and Jeff Shrader I have been awarded a Seed Research Grant to examine global inequities in weather forecasts. We plan to organize a workshop next year.
May 12, 2023: Honored to have been awarded the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award by the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
May 11, 2023: Today I presented new work on global inequalities in weather forecasts at the Columbia Postdoctoral Research Symposium, a collaboration with Jeff Shrader. Update: My presentation was awarded a Best Poster Award!
April 26, 2023: New working paper: Some like it cold. Heterogeneity in the temperature-economy relationships of Europe. Link here.
March 31, 2023: My conference calendar for this year is taking shape. You can meet me at the AERE summer conference in Portland, Maine, at the EGU General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, the EAERE annual conference in Limassol, Cyprus, the AAEA annual meeting in Washington DC, and a few smaller conferences and workshops. I will present three new projects, each for the first time. More soon.
January 14, 2023: In a new paper published this week in Environmental Research: Climate, James Rising, Ana de Menezes, and I examine the relationship between weather and COVID-19. We find that weather affects both detection and transmission of the disease. We also find that seasonal variation in temperature can explain large changes in COVID-19 cases. Read more here.
December 6, 2022: Looking forward to presenting my work on temperature variability in the economics research seminar at the University of Leeds tomorrow. More info here.
November 24, 2022: New paper out in Nature Climate Change. We show that policy sequencing seems to be a common strategy of countries to lower barriers to a national price on carbon. Available here.
Use this area to speak to your mission. I’m a research scientist in the Moonshot team at DeepMind. I blog about machine learning, deep learning, and moonshots.
I apply a range of qualitative and quantitative methods to comprehensively investigate the role of science and technology in the economy.
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