Robert Pollin

Robert Pollin is growing a green economy
Robert helped build one of the country’s leading economic research centers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and now he’s taking his ideas global.
 
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UMass Video Profile Series Transcript :Robert Pollin

The tradition in UMass economics has been left of center for a long time. I think it's fair to say that it's the best-known and most accomplished left of center economics program in the country, maybe the world. And PERI grew out of that tradition. Basically, it is a research institute that tries to address real-world economic problems. Things like mass unemployment, like green economics or ecological economics, poverty in developing countries. It's all just using the tools of economics to try to create better opportunities for people. It's all part of the same thing. The person that I've worked most closely with through all of this started out as my graduate student. She's an assistant research professor at PERI now. And I think it's fair to say she has a world reputation. Heidi Garrett-Peltier, UMass grad student, UMass PhD, Assistant Professor at PERI, is the person that really developed the techniques that enable us to observe—if you invest in good, green things, like building retrofit for efficiency or solar energy, what really are the job impacts? Heidi is the best person out there to give you the answer. A lot of people today are talking about inequality, and how we deal with inequality. Some people are winners in the market, some people are losers. And winners and losers get compounded over time, and it gets passed on to generations. But we also have equalizing institutions. And the single most-important equalizing institution is public education. That's going to give all of us more opportunities. So that's really what UMass means. I'm Bob Pollin. I'm a distinguished professor of economics here at UMass. I stand for research that can change the world, and I stand for UMass.

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