M. Scott Taylor is the Canada Research Chair in International, Energy and Environmental Economics at the University of Calgary, Alberta. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in both the International Trade and Investment, and Energy and Environmental Economics working groups and a Fellow of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics. He is also a CESifo Associate and a Research Professor at the Ifo Institute, Germany. In 2004, Professor Taylor’s book “International Trade and the Environment: Theory and Evidence” (joint with Brian Copeland) won the Doug Purvis Prize for its outstanding contribution to Canadian Economic Policy. In 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Basel, Switzerland for his pioneering work on trade, the environment, and renewable resources. In 2014, Scott Taylor has been named fellow to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the highest honour that can be attained by scholars, artists and scientists in Canada. Taylor has a Ph.D. (1991) from Queen’s University and a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Calgary.
Prior to his current position, Taylor was a Full Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1998-2004), and an Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of British Columbia (1992 – 1998). He has also been a Visiting Scholar in the Princeton Department of Economics (1991, 2003), and a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sauder Business School at the University of British Columbia (1991). From 1995 to 1998 he was a Scholar in the Economic Growth Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Professor Taylor’s research focuses on the interaction of international markets, economic growth, and environmental outcomes. His most influential works examine how the level of pollution concentrations in major cities is affected by changes in industrial production brought about by international trade and/or economic growth. Other important work connects the health of biological resources such as fish and forest stocks to the pressures brought about by globalization. He has investigated the role natural resource collapses have played in the rise and fall of prehistoric societies, how growth and trade jointly determine environmental outcomes, and how access to international markets affects research, development, and long run growth. A marked feature of his research is the use of novel methods allowing him to confront testable hypothesis with empirical evidence.
Professor Taylor’s publications have appeared in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, International Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Canadian Journal of Economics, and Resource and Energy Economics.