About

Meredith Fowlie is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, affiliated with the Goldman School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on the intersection of energy, environment, and policy, applying rigorous analytical methods to address issues related to resource economics and environmental policy. As a faculty member, she contributes to the development of policies aimed at improving public welfare through her expertise in resource economics and environmental regulation.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Economics
• Environmental economics
• Business
• Political Science
• Microeconomics
• Engineering
• Environmental science
• Environmental planning
• Market economy
• Natural resource economics
• Finance
• Public economics
• Law
• Epistemology
• Philosophy
• Actuarial science
• Economic growth
• Risk analysis (engineering)

Selected publications

• The Efficiency and Equity Impacts of Risk Classification in Catastrophe Insurance

  Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy · 2026-01-01

  articleSenior author

  Insured losses from natural disasters are increasing, prompting insurers to adopt more sophisticated approaches to modeling and classifying natural catastrophe risk. We study the efficiency and equity implications of increasingly granular risk classification in homeowner’s insurance markets. Insurance pricing that reflects variation in assessed hazard exposure can strengthen incentives for cost-effective mitigation, but it also exposes households to classification risk. The distributional consequences of more granular pricing depend on the correlation between assessed risk and wealth. We evaluate these trade-offs empirically using data from California’s homeowner’s insurance market. Focusing on wildfire risk, we show that more granular pricing raises insurance costs substantially for properties in the tail of the hazard distribution and increases take-up of cost-effective risk mitigation investments. Because wildfire risk is negatively correlated with income, granular pricing shifts more insurance costs onto lower-income households. These results underscore a central tension in catastrophe insurance: improving risk pricing efficiency can place greater burdens on less-well-off households.

  PublisherDOI

• Dynamic grid management reduces wildfire adaptation costs in the electric power sector

  Nature Climate Change · 2025-09-25 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• An Economic Perspective on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan — Cross-State Coordination Key to Cost-Effective CO₂ Reductions

  WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks · 2025-05-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• How are Insurance Markets Adapting to Climate Change? Risk Selection and Regulation in the Market for Homeowners Insurance

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 20 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• How Are Insurance Markets Adapting to Climate Change? Risk Classification and Pricing in the Market for Homeowners Insurance

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-06-01 · 15 citations

  reportOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Wildfire Insurance, Information, and Self-Protection

  AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2023-05-01 · 15 citations

  article

  Like other climate-related disasters, wildfires are intensifying. Property owners can reduce their vulnerability to wildfire losses but are not well informed about the costs and benefits of available self-protection investments. Technological advances mean that insurers are increasingly able to monitor household mitigation behavior. We revisit the problem of self-protection from risk in a setting where households have incomplete insurance and limited information about self-protection investments. Insurer discounts for self-protection generate additional value by informing households about self-protection investments that also reduce uninsured losses. This information provision increases the responsiveness of self-protection to ex post disaster assistance, with implications for optimal government transfers.

  PublisherDOI

• How Is the US Pricing Carbon? How Could We Price Carbon?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• How is the U.S. Pricing Carbon? How Could We Price Carbon?

  Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis · 2022-01-01 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Economists have for decades recommended that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases be taxed – or otherwise priced – to provide incentives for their reduction. The USA does not have a federal carbon tax; however, many state and federal programs to reduce carbon emissions effectively price carbon – for example, through cap-and-trade systems or regulations. There are also programs that subsidize reductions in carbon emissions. At the 2022 meetings of the American Economic Association, the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis brought together five well-known economists – Joe Aldy, Dallas Burtraw, Carolyn Fischer, Meredith Fowlie, and Rob Williams – to discuss how the USA does, in fact, price carbon and how it could price carbon. Maureen Cropper chaired the panel. This paper summarizes their remarks.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How is the Us Pricing Carbon? How Could We Price Carbon?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• How Is the US Pricing Carbon? How Could We Price Carbon?

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2022-10-01 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access

  Economists have for decades recommended that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases be taxed-or otherwise priced-to provide incentives for their reduction. The United States does not have a federal carbon tax; however, many state and federal programs to reduce carbon emissions effectively price carbon-for example, through cap-and-trade systems or regulations. There are also programs that subsidize reductions in carbon emissions. At the 2022 meetings of the American Economic Association, the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis brought together five well-known economists-Joe Aldy, Dallas Burtraw, Carolyn Fischer, Meredith Fowlie, and Rob Williams-to discuss how the United States does, in fact, price carbon and how it could price carbon.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Catherine Wolfram

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  130 shared

• Michael Greenstone

  University of Chicago

  111 shared

• Stephen P. Holland

  Yale University

  72 shared

• Erin T. Mansur

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  70 shared

• Joseph E. Aldy

  34 shared

• Stephen Ryan

  Washington University in St. Louis

  14 shared

• KVS Vinay

  Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

  14 shared

• Mar Reguant

  13 shared

Awards & honors

• Class of 1935 Endowed Chair in Energy