Ross McKitrick, Ph.D.

Dr. Ross McKitrick is a professor in the Department of Economics and Finance specializing in environmental economics. His research focuses on environmental policy and climate change including econometric applications in climatology. Dr. McKitrick has published extensively in leading journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Geophysical Research Letters, Climate Dynamics, Energy Journal, Empirical Economics, and the Canadian Journal of Economics.

In his recent article, "Reply to Comment on 'Climate Sensitivity, Agricultural Productivity and the Social Cost of Carbon in FUND' by Philip Meyer," published in Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Dr. McKitrick and co-author Dr. Dayaratna address critiques of their previous work on the social cost of carbon (SCC) using the FUND model. They explore the implications of recent empirical findings regarding CO₂ fertilization and climate sensitivity, highlighting that new satellite and experimental evidence indicates larger agricultural productivity gains from CO₂ growth than previously reflected in FUND's parameterization. The authors argue that earlier Monte Carlo analyses in Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have not adequately considered these findings. By updating the distributions of these parameters and applying varying discount rates, they demonstrate that the lower bound of the SCC is likely negative, and the upper bound is significantly lower than previously claimed, at least through the mid-21st century.

Dr. McKitrick's research provides important insights into the economic evaluation of climate policies and the modeling of environmental impacts, emphasizing the need for accurate parameterization and empirical validation in assessing the social cost of carbon.