Alex Heil, PhD, Senior Economist at The Conference Board, is an applied economist with more than 20 years of experience in the energy, environment, and infrastructure space. His work is centered on the energy transition, renewable energy resources, urban economics, and how infrastructure and transportation will affect development patterns and economic trends.
Before joining the Conference Board, Alex was VP for Research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a think tank focused on the finances and operations of New York City and State governments. Prior to CBC, Alex was the Chief Economist of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In that role, he analyzed regional economic conditions, conducted regional cost benefit analysis, assessed the regional economic impacts of transportation investments, and undertook economic and financial project evaluations. He also worked as a consultant on energy and utility projects for private and public sector clients as an economist for CDM Smith, Inc.
Alex has been a frequent speaker and presenter at conferences and events for commercial real estate, transportation, and financial executives in the Greater New York metropolitan region and nationwide.
His background includes a strong focus on environmental economics and sustainability. He contributed to a Congressional Study on Investments in Transportation Resilience and has been an adjunct faculty member in the Sustainability Management Program at Columbia University for nearly a decade. He also teaches in the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU.
Originally from Germany, he received his BSc from Hawai’i Pacific University in Honolulu, his MSc from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, and his PhD from the University of South Wales in the United Kingdom.
Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) involves the use of microeconomics to formally assess the costs and benefits of different projects or investments. CBA is required for major regulations in the United States and is frequently used as a key input into major policy decisions. Understanding its advantages and limitations, and being able to distinguish well-conducted from poor analyses, is an important skill for a policy analyst. This course provides you with the conceptual foundations and practical knowledge you will need to both conduct CBA as well as be a more thoughtful consumer of policy research. The course draws on a mixture of economic theory and real-life case studies to examine both the theoretical and practical issues involved in conducting CBA.
Economics—misguided market forces—is at the core of most environmental problems. Economics—guiding market forces in the right direction—is also fundamental to the solution.
In this course we develop some of the fundamental economic tools for environmental policy analysis and management: Economics 101 applied to environmental problems—often, though not exclusively, focused on climate change.
We will also go well beyond that initial Econ 101 take, narrowly defined. In fact, focusing exclusively on Econ 101 may sometimes be positively misleading.
For example, Econ 101 traditionally tells us to price each ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere, and to get out of the way. Markets will take of the rest.
Not so fast.
Econ 102 tells us that not only is there a negative carbon spillover of economic activity, but also a positive learning-by-doing one. Installing the first rooftop solar panel is costly. The one hundredth is already cheaper. The millionth is a breeze. That goes for any individual roofer. It also goes for entire countries, and it is at the heart of policies from California’s Solar Initiative (formerly, its Million Solar Roofs Initiative) to Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition).
Then there’s Political Economy 101. Shouting “carbon tax” all day long will not make it so. In fact, subsidizing clean technologies may even be a necessary step to get a price on CO2 passed in the first place.
We will discuss this and similar examples, applying Econ 101 (and 102) to the real world, keeping Political Economy 101—and real-world politics—in mind every step along the way.
The Economics of Public Policy analyzes the impact of public policy on the allocation of resources and the distribution of income in the economy. In this course, you will learn how to use the tools of microeconomics and empirical analysis to answer these questions: When should the government intervene in the economy? How might the government intervene? And, what are the effects of those interventions on economic outcomes? The course will include topics such as: income distribution and welfare programs, taxation and tax reform, government debt, market failures, Social Security, unemployment insurance and health insurance.
Economics—misguided market forces—is at the core of most environmental problems. Economics—guiding market forces in the right direction—is also fundamental to the solution.
In this course we develop some of the fundamental economic tools for environmental policy analysis and management: Economics 101 applied to environmental problems—often, though not exclusively, focused on climate change.
We will also go well beyond that initial Econ 101 take, narrowly defined. In fact, focusing exclusively on Econ 101 may sometimes be positively misleading.
For example, Econ 101 traditionally tells us to price each ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere, and to get out of the way. Markets will take of the rest.
Not so fast.
Econ 102 tells us that not only is there a negative carbon spillover of economic activity, but also a positive learning-by-doing one. Installing the first rooftop solar panel is costly. The one hundredth is already cheaper. The millionth is a breeze. That goes for any individual roofer. It also goes for entire countries, and it is at the heart of policies from California’s Solar Initiative (formerly, its Million Solar Roofs Initiative) to Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition).
Then there’s Political Economy 101. Shouting “carbon tax” all day long will not make it so. In fact, subsidizing clean technologies may even be a necessary step to get a price on CO2 passed in the first place.
We will discuss this and similar examples, applying Econ 101 (and 102) to the real world, keeping Political Economy 101—and real-world politics—in mind every step along the way.
The primary purpose of the economics core course is to enable students to use economic thinking, concepts and tools in their professional public policy work. Accomplishing this also requires refreshing and strengthening their quantitative skills. By the end of the course, students should be able to articulate the economic context and analysis of a public problem, use economic concepts in managerial and policy decisions, and progress to advanced level courses confident of their understanding of microeconomics, macroeconomics and their tools.
The primary purpose of the economics core course is to enable students to use economic thinking, concepts and tools in their professional public policy work. Accomplishing this also requires refreshing and strengthening their quantitative skills. By the end of the course, students should be able to articulate the economic context and analysis of a public problem, use economic concepts in managerial and policy decisions, and progress to advanced level courses confident of their understanding of microeconomics, macroeconomics and their tools.
The primary purpose of the economics core course is to enable students to use economic thinking, concepts and tools in their professional public policy work. Accomplishing this also requires refreshing and strengthening their quantitative skills. By the end of the course, students should be able to articulate the economic context and analysis of a public problem, use economic concepts in managerial and policy decisions, and progress to advanced level courses confident of their understanding of microeconomics, macroeconomics and their tools.
Public economics uses the tools of microeconomics and empirical analysis to study the impact of government policies on economic behavior and the distribution of resources in the economy. The course begins with a review of market failures and preferences for income redistribution to answer questions such as: When should the government intervene in the economy? How might the government intervene? And, what are the effects of those interventions on economic outcomes? Topics include issues related to revenue spending (e.g., education, means-tested programs, social insurance) and revenue raising (e.g., tax incidence, tax efficiency, personal income taxes).