Sheila Olmstead studies the economic dimensions of environmental policies, especially those related to water quantity and quality. Her research has influenced academic thinking and regulatory policies on topics including climate change and water resource management, the effect of various pricing strategies on water conservation, economics and water quality considerations around shale gas development, measuring the economic value of improved water quality, and the effect of carbon capture and storage on local air pollution.

Professor Olmstead holds a dual appointment as a Cornell Atkinson Scholar. Prior to joining the Brooks School, she served as the Dean Rusk Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) in Washington, DC and a senior fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, MT. From 2016 to 2017, she served as the senior economist for energy and the environment at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

She is currently President-elect of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, where she has also served as vice president and a member of the board of directors, and she has served as editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, associate editor of Water Resources Research, as co-editor of Environmental and Resource Economics, and book review editor of Water Economics and Policy. 

Dr. Olmstead holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University (2002), a master’s in public affairs from The University of Texas at Austin (1996) and a B.A. from the University of Virginia (1992).

About Sheila Olmstead