Preface: Libkey

Libkey Nomad is a browser extension provided by the University of Virginia that instantly identifies links to articles for full text access either through the library's holdings or through Open Access sources. You should be able to access the vast majority of academic texts relevant to your work through libkey. Installation instructions can be found here.

Scientific Inquiry and Causal Inference

Before we dive into coding, data cleaning, or regression analysis, it’s worth stepping back and asking: What and why are we doing this? Below is a list of readings and books that help ground our work in the core logic of scientific inquiry and causal reasoning. They provide a foundation for thinking clearly and critically about data, evidence, and inference.

• Karl Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations” (1953): This is a reminder that empirical work is ultimately about falsification, not confirmation. We’re not here to prove hypotheses right, but to subject them to tests that could show them wrong. A brief, accessible read that sharpens your sense of what it means to do science.

• Paul Holland, “Statistics and Causal Inference” (1986) Journal of the American Statistical Association: A classic paper that forces you to slow down and think carefully about what it means to make causal claims. Worth re-reading as you develop as a researcher.

• Angrist & Pischke, Mastering Metrics: A friendly and intuitive introduction to the core empirical strategies used by applied economists. This is where theory meets practice, with just the right amount of math.

• Angrist & Pischke, Mostly Harmless Econometrics: A deeper dive into the econometric toolkit. Clear, rigorous, and packed with examples, this is the book you turn to when you’re ready to get serious about causal inference.

• Scott Cunningham, Causal Inference: The Mixtape: A free, accessible, and thorough guide to modern causal inference. Think of it as your toolkit for empirical work. It's well-explained, example-rich, and pragmatic. It’s especially good for revisiting core concepts as your projects progress.

Environmental Economics Background

Background Reading

• Pricing the Priceless (Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics) Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics A History of Environmental Economics" by H. Spencer Banzhaf: This readable and engaging history traces how economists have approached environmental problems over the last century.

• Krutilla, J. (1967) "Conservation Reconsidered", American Economic Review, 57(4) pp. 777-786.

• Solow, R. (1991) "Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective", The Eighteenth J. Seward Johnson Lecture.

• Charles Kolstad, Environmental Economics: A rigorous, policy-oriented introduction widely used in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses. Covers externalities, pollution regulation, and climate change with clear economic modeling.

• Tom Tietenberg & Lynne Lewis, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: A classic, widely adopted undergraduate text. Strong on policy institutions and real-world applications. Less math-heavy than Kolstad, but conceptually solid and broad in scope.

• Shapiro and Balboni (2025) “Spatial Environmental Economics”, Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics: A comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the spatial dimensions of environmental economics.

• Become familiar with your PI's publications and working papers.

Environmental Inequality

• Banzhaf, Ma, and Timmins (2019) “Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place, and Pollution”, JEP
• Cain et al., (2024) “Recent Findings and Methodologies in Economics Research in Environmental Justice”, REEP
• Mohai et al., (2009) “Environmental Justice”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources
• Hsiang, Oliva, and Walker (2019) “The Distribution of Environmental Damages”, REEP

Air Pollution

• Currie and Walker (2021) “What Do Economists Have to Say About the Clean Air Act 50 Years After the Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency”, JEP
• Aguilar Gomez et al. “This is Air: The ‘Non-Health’ Effects of Air Pollution”, Annual Review of Resource Economics
• Shapiro (2022) “Pollution Trends and US Environmental Policy: Lessons from the Last Half Century”, REEP

Extreme Heat

Sea Level Rise

Hurricanes

Wildfires

Clean Energy Transition

Reading and Writing

• “How to Read a Book: The Classical Guide to Intelligent Reading”. Even if you just read the first few chapters it will serve you well and save you a lot of time.
• “First You Write a Sentence: The Elements of Reading, Writing...and Life.”: Communicating clearly and effectively is essential. This book has been one of the more helpful books on writing that I’ve read over the years.
• Anne Lamott, "Shitty First Drafts"