Stephen DeCanio (born 1942) is a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

, emeritus, at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

. His current research deals with the impact of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

on society, the economy, and culture. His recent research has also addressed the consequences of computational limits for economics and social theory more generally. He has published books and articles in the fields of global environmental protection and

energy economics Energy economics is a broad scientific subject area which includes topics related to supply and use of energy in societies. Considering the cost of energy services and associated value gives economic meaning to the efficiency at which ener ...

, the

theory of the firm The theory of the firm consists of a number of economic theories that explain and predict the nature of the firm, company, or corporation, including its existence, behaviour, structure, and relationship to the market. Firms are key drivers in ec ...

, and economic history. He studied mathematics as an undergraduate at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and received his Ph.D in economics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

in 1972. After teaching at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...

(1970–72) and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

(1972-78), he joined the faculty at UCSB in 1978. From 1986 to '87 he was the Senior Staff Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisors. He was also a member of the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on ...

Economic Options Panel, which reviewed the economic aspects of the

Montreal Protocol The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organization ...

on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Awards

In 1996 he was awarded the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

and in 2007 he was presented with the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought by the

Global Development and Environment Institute The Global Development And Environment Institute (GDAE, pronounced “gee-day”) is a research center at Tufts University founded in 1993. GDAE conducts research and develops teaching materials in economics and related areas that follow an interdi ...

. He participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Publications

In addition to numerous journal articles, DeCanio has written the following books: *''Agriculture in the Postbellum South: The Economics of Production and Supply''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1974. *''Taxing Energy: Oil Severance Taxation and the Economy'' (with Robert T. Deacon, H.E. Frech, III, and M. Bruce Johnson). New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1990. *''Tax Waste, Not Work'' (with Jeff Hamond, principal author, and Peggy Duxbury, Alan Sanstad, and Christopher Stinson). San Francisco: Redefining Progress, 1997. *''The Economics of Climate Change: A Background Paper''. San Francisco: Redefining Progress, 1997. (A copy of this may be found in the References section of the

Economics of global warming The economics of climate change concerns the economic aspects of climate change; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response. A number of factors make this and the politics of climate change a difficult problem: it is a l ...

entry.) *''Economic Models of Climate Change: A Critique''. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003. *''Limits of Economic and Social Knowledge''. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014.

References

External links

* http://www.stephendecanio.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Decanio, Stephen 1942 births Living people 21st-century American economists Energy economists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Tufts University faculty