Karen Clay

Professor Carnegie Mellon University

  • Pittsburgh PA

Karen Clay’s research examines the growth of the U.S. economy, including energy issues, air pollution, and the impact of climate change.

Contact

Carnegie Mellon University

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Biography

Karen Clay is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.

She holds courtesy appointments at the Tepper School of Business and in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, is a Senior Fellow at the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon, is an affiliated faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Law, and is a research associate at the NBER.

Professor Clay's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Sloan Foundation. Her work has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economics and Statistics, and American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, Karen Clay was an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

Areas of Expertise

Energy Economics
Public Policy
Business and Economics
Energy
Environmental Economics

Media Appearances

Pittsburgh again receives ‘F’ for air quality in American Lung Association annual report

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  online

2025-04-23

Pittsburgh again receives an "F" for air quality in the American Lung Association annual report. "Pittsburgh, more than many places, has nontrivial industrial air pollution. Unfortunately, it’s been a long-running political issue," said Karen Clay (Heinz College).

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US neighborhoods with more people of color suffer worse air pollution

The Guardian  print

2023-03-08

"A 2021 study led by Karen Clay of Carnegie Mellon University suggested that factors including more frequent wildfires and an increase in the number of miles American vehicles travel have already begun to reverse the progress the US has made in cutting its air pollution."

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In Illinois, a Model for a Just Transition From Coal to Solar

Earth Island Journal  online

2022-11-14

Karen Clay, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, believes the shift from polluting power production to renewable energy was a long time coming. Like all economists, Clay also looks at the cost-benefit analysis. Although keeping fossil fuels might save jobs, “the jobs don’t come for free,” she says. The tradeoff is loss of life.

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Social

Industry Expertise

Writing and Editing
Business Services
Education/Learning
Research

Accomplishments

Lone Mountain Fellow

2019

PERC

Carnegie Mellon Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women

2017-2018

sponsored by the Dean and the Provost

Award for Exceptional Service to the Journal of Economic History Editorial Board

2021

Education

University of Virginia

B.A.

Economics

1988

with Highest Honors

Stanford University

Ph.D.

Economics

1994

Affiliations

  • Explorations in Economic History : Co-Editor
  • National Bureau for Economic Research : Research Associate, Energy and Environmental Economics

Event Appearances

Flexner Era Medical School Closures, Physician Markets, and Mortality in the United States

NBER Summer Institute  

Air Lead and Infant Mortality

University of Oregon  

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and its Lessons for COVID-19

Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space  

Research Grants

Air Pollution Externalities: Evidence from U.S. Electricity Generation over the Twentieth Century

NSF Grant

2016-2020

Air Pollution and Environmental Justice in Allegheny County

Heinz Foundation Grant

2020

Oil and Gas Leasing Behavior

Subcontract from Rand to University of Pittsburgh on NSF Grant

2016-2017

Articles

The Value of Health Insurance during a Crisis: Effects of Medicaid Implementation on Pandemic Influenza Mortalit

The Review of Economics and Statistics

2022

This paper studies how better access to public health insurance affects infant mortality during pandemics. The analysis combines cross-state variation in mandated eligibility for Medicaid with two influenza pandemics that arrived shortly before and after the program's introduction in 1965.

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Toxic Truth: Lead and Fertility

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists

2021

Using US county-level data on lead in air for 1978–88, this paper provides the first causal evidence on the effects of airborne lead exposure on the general fertility rate and the completed fertility rate in the broad population. Instrumental variable estimates show an increase in fertility implied by the average observed decrease in airborne lead of about 6% of mean fertility.

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The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Its Lessons for COVID-19

Journal of Economic Literature

2022

This article reviews the global health and economic consequences of the 1918 influenza pandemic, with a particular focus on topics that have seen a renewed interest because of COVID-19. We begin by providing an overview of key contextual and epidemiological details as well as the data that are available to researchers. We then examine the effects on mortality, fertility, and the economy in the short and medium run.

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