Carolyn Fischer is a senior fellow at Resources for the Future and currently a Marie Skłodowska–Curie Fellow of the European Commission, visiting at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Venice, Italy. Her research focuses on policy mechanisms and modeling tools that cut across a variety of environmental and resource management issues. In the areas of climate change and energy policy, she has published articles on designing cap-and-trade programs, fuel economy standards, renewable portfolio standards, energy efficiency programs, technology policies, the Clean Development Mechanism, and the evaluation of international climate policy commitments. A recent focus of her research is the interplay between international trade and climate policy, options for avoiding carbon leakage, and the implications for energy-intensive, trade-exposed sectors. In areas of natural resources management, she has addressed issues of eco-certification, wildlife conservation, invasive species, and biotechnology, with particular emphasis on the opportunities and challenges posed by international trade.
Fischer joined RFF in 1997, after earning her PhD in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She is also a fellow of the CESifo Research Network and a member of Environment Canada’s Environmental Economics and Policy Research Network. Previously, she has been a visiting professor at Gothenburg University; a Dahrendorf Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics; a UCE3 Senior Fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara; and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, consulted for the World Bank Group, and was a staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. She has served on the board of directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and currently serves on the scientific board of Economics for Energy and the economics advisory board of Environmental Defense Fund. She has been associate editor of Resource and Energy Economics and currently serves on the editorial board of the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy and the International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics.