Brian Murray's Bio and Research

Dr. Brian C. Murray is Director for Economic Analysis at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Research Professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He is widely recognized for his work on the economics of climate change policy, including the design of cap-and-trade policy elements to address cost containment and inclusion of offsets from traditionally uncapped sectors such as forestry and agriculture. Members of the United States Congress and their staff have sought the counsel of Dr. Murray and Nicholas Institute colleagues as they have developed climate change legislative proposals. Dr. Murray has been invited as a co-author of several national and international assessments of forest resources, especially related to climate change. Of particular note, he was a convening lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry, which confers status shared by all other IPCC authors as joint contributors to the IPCC’s 2007 Nobel Peace prize. He has convened several forums of economic modeling experts to examine and communicate the results of their climate, energy and land use policy efforts to the public and private sectors. His research has examined the economic effects of traditional command-based regulatory strategies for pollution control and more market-oriented approaches such as cap-and-trade programs and emission taxes. He has been a consultant to a wide range of clientele in the public and private sector, including numerous federal government agencies, members of Congress and their staff, state regulatory agencies, CEOs and senior staff from Fortune 500 companies, trade groups, nongovernmental organizations, and other academic institutions. His work has been published in books, edited volumes, and professional journals. Prior to coming to the Nicholas Institute in 2006, Dr. Murray was Director of the Center for Regulatory Economics and Policy Research at RTI International, a university-affiliated not-for-profit research institution.