David Wheeler

Senior Fellow
dwheeler@cgdev.org

Expertise

Environmental economics; climate change; natural resource conservation; indicators of sustainable development and country performance; African infrastructure development; priority-setting for country aid allocation.

Initiative

Research Topics

Education

PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1974); BA, Princeton University (1968)

Background

David Wheeler is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he works on issues related to climate change, natural resource conservation, African infrastructure development, sustainable development indicators and the allocation of development aid. From 1993-2006, as a Lead Economist in the World Bank's Development Research Group, he directed a team that worked on environmental policy and research issues in collaboration with policymakers and academics in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ghana and other developing countries. His team focused particularly on reducing pollution through public information disclosure, in collaboration with the environment ministries of China, Indonesia and the Philippines. He also worked on priority-setting for country lending, grants and technical assistance with the World Bank's Vice Presidency for Operations Policy and Country Services, the World Bank's Environment Department, and the Global Environment Facility. During his last two years at the Bank, he and his colleagues initiated a climate change program in the Development Research Group, as well as collaborating with the Bank's Africa Region on a cost-effective strategy for road network upgrading in Sub-Saharan Africa.

After completing his PhD in 1974, David taught economics for two years at the National University of Zaire in Kinshasa. He joined the economics faculty at Boston University in 1976, and taught there until he joined the World Bank in 1990. While on the BU faculty, he was a visiting professor in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning (1978-79), a co-founder and principal of the Boston Institute for Developing Economies (1987-1990), and Jakarta field director of the Development Studies Project for BAPPENAS, Indonesia's Planning Ministry (1987-1989).

Non-CGD Publications

"Environmental Economics at the World Bank", 2008, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy (with Susmita Dasgupta, Kirk Hamilton and Stefano Pagiola)

"Determinants of a digital divide in Sub-Saharan Africa : a spatial econometric analysis of cell phone coverage", 2008, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS 4516 (with Piet Buys, Susmita Dasgupta and Thomas Tim)

"Improving indoor air quality for poor families : a controlled experiment in Bangladesh", 2007, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS 4422 (with Susmita Dasgupta, Mainul Huq and M. Khaliquzzaman)

"Country Stakes in Climate Change Negotiations: Two Dimensions of Vulnerability," 2007, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS 4300 (with Uwe Deichmann, Piet Buys, Craig Meisner and Thao Ton That).

"Road Network Upgrading and Overland Trade Expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa," 2006, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4097 (with Uwe Deichmann and Piet Buys).

"Environment During Growth: Accounting for Governance and Vulnerability," 2006, World Development, Vol. 34, No. 9, September (with Susmita Dasgupta, Kirk Hamilton, and Kiran D. Pandey).

"The Economics of Decentralized Poverty-Environment Programs: An Application for Lao PDR," 2006, Journal of Policy Modeling, Vol. 28, No. 7, October (with Piet Buys, Susmita Dasgupta, Uwe Deichmann, Craig Meisner, et al.).

"Informal Regulation of Industrial Pollution in Developing Countries: Evidence from Indonesia," 2006, in Thomas P. Lyon (ed.), Regulation, (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar) (with Sheoli Pargal).

"Is Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture Less Profitable for Farmers? Evidence on Integrated Pest Management in Bangladesh," 2006, Review of Agricultural Economics (forthcoming, with Susmita Dasgupta and Craig Meisner).

"Indoor Air pollution and Rural Energy Use," 2006, in Douglas Barnes, ed., Rural Energy Strategy for Bangladesh, Washington: World Bank (with Susmita Dasgupta).

"Who Suffers from Indoor Air Pollution? Evidence from Bangladesh," 2006, Health Policy and Planning (forthcoming - with Susmita Dasgupta, Mainul Huq, M. Khaliquzzaman and Kiran Pandey).

"Indoor Air Quality for Poor Families: New Evidence from Bangladesh," 2006, Indoor Air: International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health (forthcoming, with Susmita Dasgupta1, Mainul Huq, M. Khaliquzzaman and Kiran D. Pandey).

"Pesticide Poisoning of Farm Workers: Implications of Blood Test Results from Vietnam," 2006, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health (forthcoming, with Susmita Dasgupta and Craig Meisner).

"Disclosure Strategies for Pollution Control," 2005, in The International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics 2005/2006: A Survey of Current Issues (New Horizons in Environmental Economics), Tom Tietenberg and Henk Folmer (eds.) (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar) (with Susmita Dasgupta and Hua Wang).

"Policy Reform, Economic Growth and the Digital Divide," 2005, Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2, June (with Susmita Dasgupta and Somik Lall).

"Where is the Poverty-Environment Nexus? Evidence from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam," 2005, World Development Vol. 33, No. 4 (with Susmita Dasgupta, Uwe Deichmann and Craig Meisner).

"Financial Incentives and Endogenous Enforcement in China's Pollution Levy System," 2005, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 49, No. 1 (with Hua Wang, et. al.).

"How Has Environment Mattered? An Analysis of World Bank Resource Allocation," 2004, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3269 (with Susmita Dasgupta, Craig Meisner, Piet Buys, Kiran Pandey, Kirk Hamilton, Anjali Acharya, and Ede Jorge Ijjasz-Vasquez).

"Environmental Performance Rating and Disclosure: China's GreenWatch Program," 2004, Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 71, No. 2 (with Hua Wang).

"Can China Grow and Safeguard Its Environment? The Case of Industrial Pollution," 2003, in N. Hope (ed.), Policy Reform in China, (Stanford: Stanford University Press) (with Hua Wang and Susmita Dasgupta).

"Measuring Up: New Directions for Environmental Programs at the World Bank," 2003, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3097 (with Kiran Pandey, Susmita Dasgupta, Kirk Hamilton, Limin Wang, Katharine Bolt, Piet Buys, Craig Meisner and Kiran Pandey).

"Equilibrium Pollution and Economic Development in China", 2003, Environment and Development Economics, Vol. 8, No. 3 (with Hua Wang).

"Air Pollution in Developing Countries: New Estimates for Fine Particulates," 2003, Environmental Health Perspectives (with Kiran Pandey, et. al.).

"Agricultural Trade, Development and Toxic Risk," 2002, World Development, Vol. 30, No. 8, August (with Susmita Dasgupta, Yanhong Jun and Craig Meisner).

"Beyond Pollution Havens," 2002, Global Environmental Politics, Vol. 2, No. 2, May.

"Confronting the Environmental Kuznets Curve," 2002, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 16, No. 1, Winter (with Susmita Dasgupta, Benoit Laplante and Hua Wang).

"Plant Size, Industrial Air Pollution and Local Incomes: Evidence from Brazil and Mexico," 2002, Environment and Development Economics, 7 (2) (forthcoming) (with Robert Lucas and Susmita Dasgupta).

"Racing to the Bottom? Foreign Investment and Air Pollution in Developing Countries," 2001, Journal of Environment and Development, September.

"Minute Particles, Major Problems: Cleaning the Air in Developing Countries," 2001, Forum For Applied Research and Public Policy, Vol. 16, No. 3, Fall (with Katherine Bolt, Susmita Dasgupta and Kiran Pandey).

"Environmental Regulation and Development: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis," 2001, Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2, June (with Susmita Dasgupta, Ashoka Mody and Subhendu Roy).

"Water Pollution Abatement by Chinese Industry: Cost Estimates and Policy Implications," 2001, Applied Economics, Vol. 33, No. 4 (with Susmita Dasgupta, Mainul Huq and Chonghua Zhang).

"The Microeconomic Analysis of Pollution, Pollution Abatement and Pollution Abatement Regulation," 2000, Pacific and Asian Journal of Energy, 10 (2), December (with Raymond Hartman).

"Industrial Pollution in Economic Development: The Environmental Kuznets Curve Revisited," 2000, Journal of Development Economics, 62 (2) (with Muthukumara Mani and Hemamala Hettige).

"What Improves Environmental Compliance? Evidence From Mexican Industry," 2000, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 39, No.1 (with Susmita Dasgupta and Mala Hettige).

Greening Industry: New Roles for Communities, Markets and Governments (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).