STOREP Young Scholars 2022 Award: Christopher J Proctor

The STOREP Young Scholars 2022 Award (of 1000€) is conferred to the author (young scholars under 40 years of age) of the best article presented at the Annual Conference. The article can focus on any topic of relevance to the history of political economy or the main theme of the Conference, but it can also discuss any issue in contemporary economic analysis and policy whose conclusions are spelled out in contrast or continuity with past theoretical standpoints.

The STOREP 2022 Award (19th STOREP Annual Conference, Università della Tuscia) has been conferred to:

Christopher J PROCTOR (Università Roma Tre)

author of:

Expanding the possible: Exploring the role for heterodox economics in integrated climate-economy modeling

Motivation

The paper provides a wide and systematic review of heterodox economic literature on environmental issues, with the purpose to assess its ability to interpret the various open issues and to inform policy. The contribution is rigorous, well written and represents a useful tool of economic analysis. It is perfectly congruent with STOREP perspectives. For these reasons the Commission has decided to award this paper unanimously.

Abstract

This paper explores the degree to which heterodox economics can contribute to the development and use of climate-economy integrated assessment models. To do so, it introduces the field of integrated assessment modeling, with a focus on the core economic methodology used by various types of models. It then summarizes some of the literature critiquing these models and how they inform policy. The paper then provides an extended classification of ways in which heterodox economics could be applied to climate-economy models and presents a number of storylines, or pathways, which could be created using insights and methods from heterodox schools. The paper concludes with an assessment of the scope for heterodox economics to answer the criticisms of climate-economy models, finding that despite not resolving all issues, the heterodoxy has a substantial role to play.

The article has been published as

Proctor, J.C. Expanding the possible: exploring the role for heterodox economics in integrated climate-economy modeling. Rev Evol Polit Econ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43253-023-00098-7