Energy and Climate Policy, Energy and Environmental Economics, Economics of Natural and Man-made Disasters
Dan Wei is a Research Associate Professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Research Fellow of USC’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies (CREATE) and Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy. She holds a B.E. degree in Engineering Physics and an MSc degree in Public Policy from Tsinghua University, and a Ph.D. in Geography from The Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Wei’s major research interests include modeling of economic impacts of energy and climate change policies and economic consequence analysis of disasters. She performed macroeconomic impact analyses of state climate action plans for several major states and regions in the U.S. and conducted analysis of cap and trade systems and/or carbon tax policies at the regional, state, national, and international levels. She made key contributions to a recent study in collaboration with National Renewable Energy Laboratory to evaluate the economic impacts of the City of Los Angeles transitioning to a 100% renewable electricity supply by 2045. She is also the PI of a study that evaluates the economic impacts on both the state economy and the freight transport sector of electrification of cargo handling equipment at major seaports in California. In the area of economics of disasters, she has made significant contributions in the studies of the economic impacts of four major disaster scenarios for the U.S. Geological Survey. She has led two studies funded by Caltrans that focus on analyzing the socioeconomic dimensions of resilience to seaport and highway transportation network disruptions. She is currently a co-PI on an NSF study to apply edge computing to improve reliability and resilience of interdependent infrastructure systems. Dr. Wei is the co-recipient of Regional Economic Models Outstanding Economic Analysis Award and the Sir Richard Stone Best Article Award for her contributions in economic impact modeling of disaster and energy and climate related policies.
