Jared Starr

Department of Conservation profile

Broadly, my research analyzes how economic inequality – particularly at the very top of the income distribution – shapes the distribution of environmental benefits and harms through the global economy. Specifically, I use big data to trace the flow of CO2 emissions through approximately 9,000 global industries and 10,000 global commodities and link this to annual United States household-level environmental benefits (income received and goods and services purchased), over a 19 year period. Novel to this research, I move beyond national averages and decile-level analysis to reveal in unprecedented detail the CO2 footprint of economic elites: the top 1% and 0.1% of U.S. households.

This analysis reveals the significant inequality in the scale and distribution of environmental benefits, shows sub-decile trends from 1996-2015, and explores the socio-economic and policy factors that shape inequality of harm. In doing so, it provides policy guidance on which categories of goods and services or income could be targeted for CO2 reduction efforts and which households would be affected by such policies. Finally, by monitoring this data over time, it can post-hoc reveal if certain policy choices are having the intended effects.

To do this work, I draw on approximately a half billion data points per year and combine multiple sources and methods, including: EORA MRIO environmentally extended input-output database, direct emissions data, BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys, and Census Bureau Current Population Survey data.