SIPA Faculty - Scott Barrett

Scott Barrett

Lenfest-Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics

SIPA Faculty - Scott Barrett

International Affairs Building, Room 1427


Personal Details

Focus areas: International cooperation, global public goods, climate change, ocean governance, infectious diseases

Scott Barrett is a leading scholar on transnational and global challenges, ranging from climate change to disease eradication. His research focuses on how institutions like customary law and treaties can be used to promote international cooperation.

He has advised a number of international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission, and the International Task Force on Global Public Goods. He was previously a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a member of the Academic Panel to the Department of Environment in the UK.

Barrett previously taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., where he also directed the International Policy program. Before that, he was on the faculty of the London Business School. He has also held visiting positions at Yale, Princeton, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, and École Polytechnique.

Barrett is a research fellow with the Beijer Institute (Stockholm), CESifo (Munich), and the Kiel Institute of World Economics.

Education

  • PhD in Economics, London School of Economics

Honors and Awards

Research And Publications

Collective Action to Avoid Catastrophe: When Countries Succeed, When they Fail, and Why

May 2016

Global Policy

Scott Barrett

Making the Decision

Oct 2009

Shrinking the Malaria Map: A Prospectus on Malaria Elimination

Scott Barrett

Bruno Moonen

Jim Tulloch

Dean T. Jamison

The Coming Global Climate-Technology Revolution

Oct 2009

Journal of Economic Perspectives

Scott Barrett

In The Media

We need global collaboration, coordination, and cooperation in order to address the interlocking threats of a pandemic and environmental crises, says Scott Barrett.

Aug 30 2021
The New Republic

Scott Barrett argues that the accord, which depends on collective action, does not include the kinds of incentives and penalties that would ensure that countries do their part.

Jul 27 2021
Inside Climate News

A panel of experts discusses the role of international organizations in promoting global governance around climate change.

Dec 21 2020

A weekly series from SIPA, the Earth Institute, and the Mailman School of Public Health discusses the life-altering global crisis.

Nov 10 2020

Scott Barrett speaks about the necessity of collective action in addressing problems like COVID-19 and climate change.

Jun 24 2020
State of the Planet