About

Kenneth Gillingham is the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Yale School of the Environment and a professor of economics at Yale, with primary appointment at the School of the Environment and secondary appointments in the Department of Economics and School of Management. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His background includes serving as the Senior Economist for Energy and the Environment at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during 2015-2016. Gillingham's research focuses on energy and environmental economics, drawing from applied microeconomics, behavioral economics, industrial organization, and integrated assessment modeling of climate change. He has published extensively on consumer decisions and policy related to transportation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, with work appearing in top-tier journals such as Science, Nature, and the Journal of Political Economy. His career includes positions at the California Air Resources Board, Resources for the Future, Stanford Energy Modeling Forum, and the Joint Global Change Research Institute of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in management science & engineering and economics, and his educational background includes an A.B. from Dartmouth College and M.S. degrees from Stanford University. Prior to his career as an economist, he worked as a wilderness ranger in Wyoming and New Hampshire.

Research topics

• Economics
• Computer Science
• Microeconomics
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Algorithm
• Biology
• Finance
• Neoclassical economics
• Business
• Economy
• Public administration
• Econometrics
• Natural resource economics
• Management
• Mathematics
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Self- and Social Signaling: Evidence from Solar Adoption in California

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2026-01-01

  reportOpen access

  Prosocial behavior plays a role in many economic contexts, and it has been explained by altruism, social pressure, signaling, and expectations of fairness and reciprocity.We examine prosocial behavior in a context that allows us to distinguish the role of self-signaling and social signaling from alternative explanations, including warm glow.Our context is residential solar, and selfsignaling is separately identified from social signaling by the exogenous visibility of potential solar arrays.We show that the political affiliation of proximate peers influences the extent of selfsignaling and is crowded out by the private benefits of installing solar.

  PublisherDOI

• Self- and Social Signaling: Evidence from Solar Adoption in California

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Informativeness and Welfare Effects of Labels: Evidence from the EU Energy Label Re-scaling

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Will pickup-truck buyers go electric?

  Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment · 2026-01-18

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Impacts from sector-specific energy policies on mortality: Co-benefits and socioeconomic disparities across three midwestern states in the year 2050

  Environmental Research · 2026-03-14

  articleOpen access

  Assessments on effects of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have shown wide-ranging health and exposure co-benefits in the United States (U.S.). However, the benefits of these policies may not be shared equally, and few studies have investigated differences in impacts across populations. We estimated exposure, health, and monetary benefits for various sociodemographic subpopulations, under several environmental justice indices, across three midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio) at the census tract level. We estimated changes to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) concentrations across three sector-specific energy policy scenarios (high natural gas use, high electric vehicle uptake, building energy efficiency) and a business-as-usual policy case. Health impact function analyses were used to determine census-tract level changes in mortality, and value of statistical life (VSL) was used to determine the associated monetary impacts. All energy policies were estimated to reduce PM 2.5 concentrations in 2050 compared to 2010 reference levels (1.55 to 1.70 μg/m 3 across policy projections, with avoided mortalities of 6010 (95% confidence interval 4093, 7396) to 6560 (4469, 8072), and mortality savings of $69.115 to $75.440 billion, with cost per capita between $2,456 and $2,681). Several subpopulations, including those with high educational isolation, the Black population, and those making <$75,000/year, had higher baseline expected mortality and higher projected avoided mortality compared to the overall population, indicating strong benefits for these groups. Our findings highlight the ability of climate change mitigation strategies to reduce exposure and mortalities in the Midwestern U.S. while directly benefitting certain disadvantaged populations. • Emissions reduction policies reduce health burden on midwestern communities • Census-tract level analysis enriches understanding of health co-benefits • Environmental disparity indices provide differential patterns of health impacts

  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

  AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2025-05-01

  article

  What are the welfare gains from upgrading electric vehicle infrastructure? This paper develops a model of electric vehicle charging location decisions incorporating the transportation network structure, allocation of travel, and the effect on electric vehicle demand. We estimate the model with rich data on vehicle registrations, road segments, cell phone tracks, and charging locations and characteristics. We examine a counterfactual that adds level 3 (direct current fast) chargers optimally in the Connecticut transportation network. We find that adding chargers yields significant time savings and consumer welfare gains, while electric vehicle market shares are only modestly affected.

  PublisherDOI

• Will Pickup-Truck Buyers Go Electric?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Valuing Solar Subsidies

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Strategic Avoidance and the Welfare Impacts of U.S. Solar Panel Tariffs

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-10-01 · 2 citations

  reportOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Climate Change Through the Lens of Macroeconomic Modeling

  Annual Review of Economics · 2025-03-19 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  There is a rapidly advancing literature on the macroeconomics of climate change. This review focuses on developments in the construction and solution of structural integrated assessment models (IAMs), highlighting the marriage of state-of-the-art natural science with general equilibrium theory. We discuss challenges in solving dynamic stochastic IAMs with sharp nonlinearities, multiple regions, and multiple sources of risk. Key innovations in deep learning and other machine learning approaches overcome many computational challenges and enhance the accuracy and relevance of policy findings. We conclude with an overview of recent applications of IAMs and key policy insights.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher R. Knittel

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  128 shared

• Marten Ovaere

  38 shared

• Stephanie Weber

  32 shared

• Antonio M. Bento

  The University of Texas at Austin

  31 shared

• Bryan Bollinger

  27 shared

• Kevin Roth

  The University of Texas at Austin

  27 shared

• Richard G. Newell

  21 shared

• David Rapson

  20 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Management Science & Engineering and Economics

  Stanford University

  2011

• M.S., Statistics

  Stanford University

  2010

• M.S., Management Science & Engineering

  Stanford University

  2006

• A.B., Economics, Environmental Studies

  Dartmouth College

  2002

Awards & honors

• Fulbright Fellowship to New Zealand