About

Jay P. Shimshack is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He earned his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley and holds a B.S. from Cornell University. His primary fields of expertise include environmental regulation, environmental economics, corporate social behavior, and applied microeconomics for public policy. His academic research has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the Journal of Health Economics, the Journal of Law and Economics, and Science, among others. Shimshack has provided advisory services to federal agencies including the EPA, FDA, USDA, and DOL, consulted for private organizations, and testified before the US House of Representatives. At the University of Virginia, he teaches courses on the economics of public policy and benefit-cost analysis, and his earlier teaching experience includes statistics and research methods, environmental economics and policy, public service learning, and microeconomics. From July 2019 to June 2023, he served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, acting as the chief academic officer of the UVA Batten School.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Environmental health
• Geography
• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Natural resource economics
• Business
• Chemistry
• Agricultural economics
• Medicine
• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Environmental Citizen Complaints

  Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics · 2026-01-07

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• IPBES Business and biodiversity assessment Chapter 1: Setting the scene

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2025-09-07

  reportOpen access

  These documents correspond to Chapter 1 of the IPBES methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment), along with its supplementary materials.

  PublisherDOI

• The effect of compliance assistance on pollution discharges and violations of environmental regulations

  Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · 2025-08-31

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Researchers and policymakers assert competing behavioral models of polluters. One model portrays polluters as best approximated by the perfectly informed, rational actor from economics textbooks. Another model portrays polluters, particularly small and medium facilities, as imperfectly informed, cognitively bounded, pro‐social actors. If this second model is more accurate, environmental programs that offer low‐cost technical assistance may be especially effective in promoting regulatory compliance. Yet the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of such compliance assistance is scant. In a pre‐registered analysis using panel data research designs, we exploit idiosyncratic program roll‐out to estimate the effects of a compliance assistance program that was delivered to hundreds of Ohio water polluters. Although the program was initially deemed a success by federal and state environmental protection agencies, we estimate that, if the program had any effect on polluter behaviors, those effects were small. In our preferred specification, we estimate a precise zero effect of compliance assistance on environmental compliance and pollution. The lack of evidence for behavioral impacts from compliance assistance does not imply such programs cannot be effective, but it does underscore the need for more deliberate evaluation designs when state and federal agencies roll out their compliance assistance interventions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Replication Data for: Environmental Citizen Complaints

  Harvard Dataverse · 2025-09-12

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  This is the replication package for "Environmental Citizen Complaints," accepted in 2025 by the Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics.

  PublisherDOI

• IPBES Business and biodiversity assessment Chapter 1: Setting the scene

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2025-09-07

  reportOpen access

  These documents correspond to Chapter 1 of the IPBES methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (business and biodiversity assessment), along with its supplementary materials.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Compliance Assistance on Pollution Discharges and Violations of Environmental Regulations

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2025-07-31

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Costly sanctions and the treatment of frequent violators in regulatory settings

  Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · 2022-09-30 · 14 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Evolution of the “Waters of the United States” and the Role of Economics

  Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · 2022-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  For nearly 50 years, the Clean Water Act (CWA) has served as the main environmental statute that regulates water quality in the United States. Yet the jurisdictional limits of the act, in terms of which waters are regulated, remain unresolved. This article reviews the complicated history of these waters of the United States (WOTUS) and discusses the important role of economics in understanding the benefits and costs of a narrow versus a broad definition of WOTUS. During the Obama and Trump administrations, several economic analyses arrived at different conclusions regarding whether to expand or reduce CWA protections. We examine the key components of these analyses, including a novel federalism analysis used to support deregulation of US waterways. In this analysis, the Trump administration assumed that states would fill regulatory gaps left by the federal government. We conclude with some thoughts about key issues for the Biden administration to consider as it develops its own definition of WOTUS as well as research priorities for economists seeking to inform the debate about WOTUS.

  PublisherDOI

• Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong

  Journal of Health Economics · 2021-07-28 · 11 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Why are Pollution Damages Lower in Developed Countries? Insights from High-Income, High-Particulate Matter Hong Kong

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Timothy K.M. Beatty

  University of California, Davis

  13 shared

• Michael B. Ward

  11 shared

• Jeffrey T. LaFrance

  Monash University

  6 shared

• Jonathan Colmer

  University of Virginia

  5 shared

• Myles J. Watts

  5 shared

• Magali A. Delmas

  University of California, Los Angeles

  5 shared

• María J. Montes‐Sancho

  Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

  4 shared

• David A. Keiser

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• co-editor of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Mana…