William D. Nordhaus, a distinguished Yale economist and Nobel laureate known for quantifying the economic impact of carbon emissions, died on Friday at his home in New Haven. He was 85 years old. His nephew, Ted Nordhaus, confirmed that the cause of death was glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.
In 2018, Professor Nordhaus shared the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Paul M. Romer of New York University. The Nobel committee recognized his development of a method to balance the long-term damages of climate change against the costs required to mitigate them. Over several decades, he refined this model, which has since served as the foundation for dozens of regulations worldwide aimed at limiting fossil fuel use.
His work effectively bridged the gap between economics and earth science, creating a new field of research. Robert Stavins, director of the environmental economics program at Harvard, noted that Nordhaus played a crucial role in bringing environmental considerations into the mainstream of economics, an area that was previously considered fringe.
While Professor Nordhaus viewed climate change as a clear threat to humanity, he emphasized the necessity of balancing potential damages with the economic costs of prevention. In his initial paper describing the model, he concluded that climate stabilization would appear enormously expensive.
Sources: The New York Times Business.