GSPP Faculty
Margaret Taylor
Curriculum Vitae:
- CV (HTML format)
Roundtables & Working Groups:
- Climate Change and Changes in Large Technical Systems
- Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology
- Roundtable on New Transportation Fuels
Areas of Expertise/Interest:
- Climate Change
- Engineering
- Environmental Management
- Environmental Markets
- Environmental Policy
- Intellectual Property
- International R&D policy
- Organizational Behavior/Learning
- Regulation
- Technological Innovation
- Technology Policy
Biographical Statement:
Margaret's research explores issues in innovation and environmental policy. Much of her research focuses on how policy can induce (or block) innovation in "clean" technologies, with a particular focus on technologies that are relevant to climate change. In this line of research, she has shown that traditional environmental regulations have been effective in stimulating innovation; that cap-and-trade programs have been less effective in stimulating clean technology innovation than many observers expected, despite their strength in facilitating emissions reductions at low cost; and that models have not adequately captured the diversity of policy approaches employed to stimulate clean technology development, to the detriment of analysis of innovation in these technologies. She is currently working on a project to draw lessons from the regulatory technology-forcing experience with low- and zero-emission vehicles for a carbon-dioxide emissions trading system that could adapt its targets, based in part on the status of technology development. Other ongoing projects include consideration of the relationship between public R&D and near-commercial invention in renewable energy and pollution control technologies, as well as the role of venture capital, entrepreneurs, and individual inventors in innovation in alternative energy technologies, particularly as it relates to policy. Her work employs a diverse set of approaches, often drawing on insights from economics, organization theory, and engineering.
There is a flip side to the policy-innovation dynamic that Margaret has also begun exploring in her research: how policy copes with technology-induced risks. In this vein, she is working on several projects related to the role of policy in addressing the environmental implications of nanotechnology, as well as on a project that focuses on the comparative risks of carbon capture and sequestration versus nuclear power as options for combating climate change.
Margaret's research has won awards from the Academy of Management and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis. Her background includes legal and Capitol Hill experience in the areas of international trade, energy, and the environment, as well as consulting experience. Her education was at Carnegie Mellon University and Columbia University.
