Sustainability Leadership Fellowship Cohort: 2014-2015

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Economics

Research Summary: Jonathan is an economist interested in international environmental issues. His research focuses on how much influence other countries’ choices of pollution limits and labor laws have on our own environmental and labor standards. He is also interested in how this interdependence affects the pattern of investment flowing around the global economy, aiming to uncover a better understanding of how these domestic policies from different countries interact. His aim in doing so is to determine whether countries can attract foreign investment without needing to reduce labor standards or permit additional pollution. This research may help shape policy that avoids future disasters stemming from lax labor laws, like the Rana Plaza factory collapse, or reduces some of the 7 million premature deaths worldwide annually linked to air pollution.