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Expert Inquiry

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United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, Level II

Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation

Marginal abatement costs for greenhouse gas emissions in the United States using an energy systems approach

Socially vulnerable communities face disproportionate exposure and susceptibility to US wildfire and prescribed burn smoke

The Role of Hydrogen in Decarbonizing US Iron and Steel Production

Climate Policy Reduces Racial Disparities in Air Pollution from Transportation and Power Generation

Funding a Just Transition Away from Coal in the U.S. Considering Avoided Damage from Air Pollution

Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective (National Bureau of Economic Research Studies in Income and Wealth)

Using Marginal Damages in Environmental Policy: A Study of Air Pollution in the United States

Nicholas Z. Muller works at the intersection of environmental policy and economics. His interdisciplinary research projects focus on estimating individual discount rates and risk preferences using historical pricing data, comparing air pollution and climate damages from electric vehicles to conventional vehicles, estimating air pollution damage from energy production, measuring the impact of transporting freight in the United State on air pollution and climate, and analyzing the inequality in market and augmented measures of income.

Economics

Air Pollution

Environmental Policy

Freight Transportation

Market Inequality

Carnegie Mellon University Profile 

Carnegie Mellon Engineering Profile

Google Scholar Citations

ResearchGate Citations

Wildfire smoke associated with 20,000 premature deaths and billions in damages

Wildfire smoke and prescribed burns caused 20,000 early deaths and billions in damages in just one year

Regulators underrate air pollution mortality by $100B, ignore racial gaps: study

135 million Americans are breathing unhealthy air, American Lung Association says

Study: US air pollution deaths increased by 9,700 a year from 2016 to 2018

America’s Air Quality Worsens, Ending Years of Gains, Study Says

New study: US air pollution rose from 2016-2018, resulting in premature deaths

Professor

Nicholas Z. Mueller, Tepper School Associate Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy, speaks about his research on the impact environmental negligence has on economic disparity.

Video Transcript:

(Music)

Nick Muller: My research focuses on the economic value of things like air pollution. When we think about gauging the status of a society's performance and its economic output, we tend to focus on things like market income. When we know there are other things that contribute to our welfare, like environmental quality, and pollution, and public goods.

(Music)

The title of my paper is, "The distribution of income is worse than you think," and what we were doing in this paper is thinking about the different levels of air pollution as different levels of public goods. And when you value the impacts from air pollution, some monetary deduction from, effectively, your net income.

(Music)

We take the official income statistics from the Census Department, deducting a certain amount for each household, that's variable based on that household's health status, where they live and the pollution exposure that they're subject to, in that adjusted measure of income, the U.S.'s distribution of income looks like Haiti or South Africa.

(Music)

It would have been a lot worse, in say 2008 and 2010, than it is today. Pollution policy has reduced the levels ,and, as I suggested, it reduces the inequality in exposure just by virtue of how those policies tend to work targeting big, stationary sources like power plants, and factories, and mills, and things like that.

(Music)

The link between your expose to these things as an outdoor air pollutant and adverse health effects, either illnesses, work absences, school absences for children, or ultimately premature death, that we're picking up, that then when monetized, gives us this picture of a much more unequal society.

(Music)

Nick Muller: How Can Pollution Increase Income Inequality?

The Tepper School Sustainability Initiative recognizes both increasing student demand for sustainability studies and the existing expertise among faculty across Carnegie Mellon.

Tepper Sustainability Initiative

Engineering & Public Policy and Economics Professor Nicholas Muller studies how greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution affect the US economy and GDP.

Nicholas Muller: Valuation of Damage from Air Pollution and Green House Gases

Tune in for a live conversation with Nicholas Muller from Carnegie Mellon University about the cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom. You can read one of the studies Nicholas worked on here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0420-1?sap-outbound-id=A3040FB6E429E8841D30071FCC0C1A54A117F77C&utm_source=hybris-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=000_MMN6385_0000017749_NRRJ+natsustain+dec19&utm_content=EN_internal_39287_20191211&mkt-key=005056B0331B1ED782EE41F48BD9EF08#citeas

About our speaker: Nicholas Muller works for the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Nicholas has received the United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, Level II (2013) and served on the University Education Council, Committee Member (2017 - 2018).

Community Lunch and Learn with Nicholas Muller

EPP's Paulina Jaramillo and Nick Muller talk about the Green Design Institute at Carnegie Mellon, including a brief overview of what the institute is working on, as well as some examples of research they are doing.

Faculty Insights with Paulina Jaramillo and Nick Muller

As we begin to plan for the recovery phases of COVID-19, how will innovation play a role in the restoration of our economy and the adaptation of a zero-carbon future? In our fourth installation of the "Energy, Resilience and COVID-19" webinar series, we examined how social, environmental and technical resiliency frameworks can better prepare our energy systems. The following panelists shared their insights on the next wave of innovation:

- Katrina Kelly-Pitou, Economics & Energy Systems Strategist - SmithGroup
- Nicholas Muller, Associate Professor of Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy; Lester and Judith Lave Development Chair in Economics, Engineering, and Public Policy - Carnegie Mellon University
- Karina Ricks, Director, Department of Mobility and Infrastructure - City of Pittsburgh

This discussion was moderated by CMU Scott Institute for Energy Innovation Executive Director Anna. J. Siefken.

For upcoming events, visit cmu.edu/energy.

Energy, Resilience, and COVID-19 Webinar Series | Webinar #4: Infrastructure Planning

Media Inquiry