Joshua Graff Zivin

Joshua Graff Zivin is the Pacific Economic Cooperation Chair in International Economic Relations at UC San Diego, where he holds faculty positions in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Department of Economics. He is presently a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves dual roles as director of the Center on Global Transformation and co-director of the Global Health Institute at UC San Diego.  

Graff Zivin is an internationally renowned economist whose broad research interests include the environment, health, development and innovation economics. He has published numerous articles on a wide range of topics in top economic, policy and science journals. Much of his current work is focused on three distinct areas of research: the relationship between the environment, health and human capital, the economics of innovation with a particular eye toward the role of institutions, social networks and financial incentives, and the design of health interventions and their economic impacts. At GPS, he teaches courses including Environmental and Regulatory Economics and Economies of the Pacific Rim.

Graff Zivin received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and his B.A. from Rutgers University. Prior to joining UC San Diego in 2008, he spent 11 years on the faculty at Columbia University, where he served as professor of economics in the Mailman School of Public Health and the School of International and Public Affairs and directed the Ph.D. Program in Sustainable Development. In 2004-05, he served as Senior Economist for Health and the Environment on the White House Council of Economic Advisers.  

For more information, please visit Joshua Graff Zivin’s personal site.

• Environment
• Health
• Development
• Innovation economics

The Effect of Pollution on Worker Productivity, Economic Preferences, and Strategic Behavior

Pollution Exposure and Human Capital Formation 

Mapping Ozone Concentrations Combining Remote Sensing and ICT Ground Verification 

Bharadwaj, P., M. Gibson, J. Graff Zivin, and C. Neilson. 2017. "Gray Matters: Fetal Pollution Exposure and Human Capital Formation." Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 4:505–42.

Chang, T., J. Graff Zivin, T. Gross, and M. Neidell. 2016. "Particulate Pollution and the Productivity of Pear Packers." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy  8:141–69.

Graff Zivin, J., M. Damon, and H. Thirumurthy. 2015. "Health Shocks and Natural Resource Management: Evidence from Western Kenya." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 69:36–52.

Graff Zivin, Joshua, Solomon Hsiang, and Matthew Neidell. 2018. "Temperature and Human Capital in the Short- and Long-Run." Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 5:77–105. DOI: 10.1086/694177.

Graff Zivin, J,, M. Kotchen, and E. Mansur. 2014. "Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity of Marginal Emissions: Implications for Electric Cars and Other Electricity-Shifting Policies." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 107:248–68.

Graff Zivin, Joshua, and Matthew Neidell. 2018. "Air Pollution’s Hidden Impacts." Science 359:39–40. .

Graff Zivin, J., and M. Neidell. 2014. "Temperature and the Allocation of Time: Implications for Climate Change." Journal of Labor Economics 32:1–26.

Graff Zivin, J.  and M. Neidell. 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital." Journal of Economic Literature 51:689–730.

Guirguis, Kristen, Rupa Basu, Wael K. Al-Delaimy, Tarik Benmarhnia, Rachel E. S. Clemesha, Isabel Corcos, Janin Guzman-Morales, Brittany Hailey, Ivory Small, Alexander Tardy, Devesh Vashishtha, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Alexander Gershunov. 2018. "Heat, Disparities, and Health Outcomes in San Diego County’s Diverse Climate Zones." GeoHealth 2:212–23. DOI: 10.1029/2017GH000127.