Paul Stainier, PhD

Dr. Paul Stainier is an environmental economist interested in the benefits, costs, and determinants of adaptation to climate change. Prior to joining Penn, he was a PhD Student at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES).

Dr. Stainier uses economic analysis and causal inference techniques to research the human responses to extreme weather events. In past work, he has studied the impacts of heat on financial distress for low-income residents of Southern California and on diet quality in rural India. In ongoing projects using administrative data from France and California, he focuses on how climate change may impact labor market inequalities. He is especially interested in contexts where there is a disconnect between the benefits and costs of climate adaptation. For instance, firms may need to pay for adaptations that primarily benefit workers. Dr. Stainier hopes to add to our understanding of how parties with potentially competing interests reach adaptation decisions in these contexts.

Dr. Stainier received a PhD in Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. During his time at the IoES, he collaborated with scholars from multiple disciplines, including economics, public health, and climate modeling. His work has been published in Nature Energy and Scientific Reports.