FACULTY
Terry Iverson
Terry.iverson@colostate.eduC324 Clark Building
970.491-6079 - 970.491-2925 Fax
Teaching Philosophy
My principal goal in teaching economics is to engage students to think critically about economic models. Abstract models are used in economics to develop insight into a wide range of important social problems: for example, to understand the incentive challenges that make climate-change policy such a difficult issue and to unveil the institutional failures that underlie the recent financial crisis. Abstractions can be powerful, but without critical thought, they can just as easily serve as a crutch for bad thinking. I encourage students to think through the assumptions that underlie a particular model and to keep in mind the context within which the modeling exercise is to be used.
Research Interests
My research explores methods for using preliminary scientific evidence as an input to environmental policy decisions; my principle topical interest is climate-change policy. In my dissertation, I develop decisions tools for communicating the policy implications of controversial science. The tools are intended to support policymakers in settings, like climate policy, in which consensus is important. In recent work, I also explore the use of formal decision criteria in implementing versions of the precautionary principle. More broadly, I am interested in approaches to policy choice under severe uncertainty that go beyond model-conditioned optimality: examples include efforts to select policies that are robust to a wide range of plausible models and efforts to promote valuable systemic properties like resilience.
Recent Work
“Decision Support for Climate-Change Policy,” July 2009, working paper.
“The Precautionary Principle and Global Environmental Change,” August 2009, working paper (with Charles Perrings).