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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

@rdbressler.bsky.social

1.7K followers 860 following 85 posts

Assistant Professor of Economics @BentleyU | Formerly Climate Staff Economist @WhiteHouseCEA, PhD @Columbia @SipaSusDev

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Dec 6

🚨"Heat disproportionally kills young people: Evidence from Wet-Bulb Temperature Exposure" My new paper co-lead with @ajsw.info is out today!

Using 20 years of nationwide mortality microdata + wet-bulb temperature, we uncovered fascinating new findings. Thread 👇

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Heat disproportionately kills young people: Evidence from wet-bulb temperature in Mexico

Analysis of temperature exposure and microdata finds the majority of heat-related deaths are among people under 35 years old.

www.science.org

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Adrien Fabre @adrien-fabre.bsky.social · Sep 8

Should the carbon price be the same across countries and sectors?

Four kinds of imperfections call for differentiated carbon prices:
1. Different growth rates
2. Market power in trade
3. The presence of country- or sector-specific distorsive taxes
4. A constraint preventing cross-country transfers

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Nicholas Emery-Xu @nicholaskemery.bsky.social · Aug 11

A lot of Americans like to blame the Reagan Administration for the rise of market power and oligopoly in the US. But markups have been rising globally (except in South America) since 1980. Seems likely that other causes were at play:

drive.google.com/file/d/1W7A9...

DLE_global.pdf

drive.google.com

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Jun 25

We build on the small literature on this topic, e.g., the pioneering work of John Broome www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1... wwnorton.com/books/climat... to discuss where population ethics issues will show up in benefit-cost analysis, and to explore what analysts might do to address them.

University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent

www.journals.uchicago.edu

R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Jun 25

The paper doesn't have all the answers. Our goal is to identify and discuss major issues in this new frontier of regulatory benefit-cost analysis.

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Jun 25

We show that, as benefit-cost analysis is increasingly used to assess phenomena that impact life and death many years in the future, such as climate change, making choices around how to deal with critical population ethics issues becomes unavoidable.

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Jun 25

Population ethics poses a number of difficult questions that have been largely ignored in the practice of regulatory benefit-cost analysis.

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Jun 25

🚨New Paper🚨

Valuing statistical absences? Why benefit-cost analysis cannot avoid population ethics"

My new paper with regulatory legal scholar extraordinaire Andy Stawasz is out in Ecological Economics!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Valuing statistical absences? Why benefit-cost analysis cannot avoid population ethics

Policies subject to BCA sometimes prevent premature deaths. If survivors would later have children, those policies not only prevent deaths; they cause…

www.sciencedirect.com

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · May 1

We had an all-star group of job market candidates this year and an all-star job market coordinator @rmetcalfe.bsky.social . Great set of placements in a really tough year. Proud to be a part of this group!

Robert Metcalfe @rmetcalfe.bsky.social · May 1

Thrilled to share the fantastic placements of our eight Sustainable Development PhD job market candidates this year!

Anna Papp – Postdoc: MIT Econ | AP: UCSB Bren

Danny Bressler – AP: Bentley Econ

Gabriel Gonzalez Suntil – Economist: Amazon

Isabella Smythe – ML Engineer: Rhizome

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · May 1

"The uncertainty that is baked into this crisis is all the more reason to take urgent and decisive action to address it."

Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · May 1

Remember how Y2K was going to lead to blackouts, bank runs and worse?

Well, it didn't. We had a deadline. We invested somewhere from $300 to $500 billion(!), and things turned out fine.

Climate change has no Y2K deadline. That's what makes it even harder to deal with

www.salon.com/2025/05/01/c...

Chaos is the essence of climate change

The next climate disaster is sure to come. When and where is the question

www.salon.com

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Christopher Callahan @ccallahan45.bsky.social · Apr 23

NEW: Fossil fuel firms like Chevron and Exxon owe the world trillions of dollars. Today in @nature.com, @jsmankin.bsky.social and I show economic losses from rising heat waves directly traceable to these firms, providing scientific support for climate accountability.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Carbon majors and the scientific case for climate liability - Nature

A transparent and reproducible scientific framework is introduced to formalize how trillions in economic losses are attributable to the extreme heat caused by emissions from fossil fuel companies, whi...

www.nature.com

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 23

Thank you, Jake!

R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 23

Yes! Let me know when you’re in town!

R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 23

Haha deal! Sounds intriguing…

R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 22

Thank you, Manuel!

R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 22

Yes! My new department head!

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 22

Thank you, Fran!

R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Apr 21

Job Market Done ✅ I'm thrilled to announce that I will be an Assistant Professor in Economics at Bentley University this fall.

I'm excited to join a great group of colleagues and to move back to Boston!

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · Apr 17

New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause:
- 15.2m deaths from AIDS
- 2.2m deaths from TB
- 7.9 additional child deaths

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Todd Jones @toddrjones.bsky.social · Mar 21

Mississippi State Univ. is hiring a tenure-track Econ Assistant Prof w/ August start!

Open field; pref. for applied micro & teaching PhD Micro I & II (Micro II this fall).

Apply: MSU site & www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing.php?JOE_ID=2025-01_111475768

Please repost—it's an off-cycle search. Thanks!

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Kelton Minor @keltonminor.bsky.social · Mar 18

There are days in life that shake you.

I’m shattered 💔 to share that I just found out that the US Government terminated my 2024 NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (~$2 million), threatening my long-promised assistant professor job at Columbia University
& academic career... 1/🧵

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R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler @rdbressler.bsky.social · Jan 15

Essential reading for folks interested in the economics of climate change. Check it out!

Paul Kelleher 🎃 @paulkelleher.net · Jan 14

Those with institutional access to Oxford Academic/Oxford Scholarship Online can now access an HTML version of my book here: academic.oup.com/book/59438

Looks like the dead-tree version will be available on/by March 4.

The Social Cost of Carbon: Ethics and the Limits of Climate Change Economics

Abstract. Climate change economists have called it “the most important number you have never heard of” and the “holy grail of climate economic analysis.” I

academic.oup.com

Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Catie Haunted Haus-man 👻👻👻 @catiehausman.bsky.social · Jan 2

Planning your climate or environment syllabus? I like to show short videos so students & I can visualize some of the things we're talking about. Here are some of the ones I like:

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · Dec 10

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.

All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems.

We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵

A chart in three parts showing data on child mortality to make the points that "The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time."

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Reposted by R. Daniel (Danny) Bressler

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · Dec 23

What’s important about this piece is economic theory, when translated into practice, needs to overcorrect for the actual impacts to people’s lives that efficiency driven by theory create. It’s not “winners COULD compensate losers” it’s “winners DO compensate losers”.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/o...

Opinion | What Economists Could Learn From George Costanza

Their economic models produced a disaster, but they doubled down.

www.nytimes.com

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