<< Back to Faculty William Shobe Research Professor of Public Policy; Director, Center for Economic and Policy Studies, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service Education & Training Ph.D. (economics), University of Minnesota, 1987 J.D., Lewis & Clark Law School, 1980 434-982-5376 shobe@virginia.edu Curriculum Vitae (177.79 KB) Courses taught Policy Analysis Research Methods Environmental Economics Research interests Environment Areas of focus Economics Environmental Policy UVA partners Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service Professor Shobe splits his time between the Batten School and UVa’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, where he heads up the Center for Economic and Policy Studies. He also teaches a class in environmental economics for the UVa Economics Department. His current research includes emission market and auction design, environmental federalism, improved economic modeling of Virginia’s economy, state economic development incentives, and state economic forecasting. In 2007, he worked with Professor Charlie Holt and others on the research team that designed the carbon allowance auctions for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In 2000, Shobe received a Fulbright Fellowship in environmental economics and policy. Before joining UVA, Shobe served as Associate Director for Economic & Regulatory Analysis with the Virginia Department of Planning & Budget (DPB), where he coordinated state expenditure forecasts and the economic analysis of state regulations. While at the DPB, Shobe managed the design and implementation of the innovative Virginia NOx allowance auction. He also developed the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website, the first in the nation web site for managing and publicizing state regulatory development. This site was honored with a “2002 Best-of-Breed” award from the Center for Digital Government, the 2002 Colborn Award for innovation from the National Association of Secretaries of State, and the 2003 Public Access to Government Information Award from the National Association of Law Libraries. Prior to joining DPB, he taught economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Shobe serves on a number of state advisory boards including the Joint Advisory Board of Economists and the State Advisory Board on Air Pollution. Related Content Shobe Receives Research Award for Climate Work News William Shobe, a Batten professor and director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, has received UVA’s “Public Impact Focused Research Award” for his significant contributions in Virginia and beyond in the field of decarbonization and emissions markets. Shobe: Net-zero emissions by 2050 are achievable, affordable in Va. News In an article for The Virginian-Pilot, Batten's William Shobe writes that with careful planning and policy design, decarbonization in the Commonwealth is achievable by 2050. Earlier this year, Shobe and his colleagues at UVA’s Energy Transition Initiative released the state's first study to analyze the actions needed to reach this goal. The Future of Decarbonization: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Public Service Event All alumni, parents, and friends are invited to join us for a discussion on pathways to decarbonizing Virginia and the global economy. The panel of experts, all with strong ties to UVA and its mission of informed public service, will discuss the surge in enthusiasm for rapid decarbonization on Grounds, in the private sector, and among NGOs. The conversation will focus on the central importance of innovation, entrepreneurship, and a commitment to public service, all hallmarks of Hoos everywhere. Batten Professor Tells Northam That Decarbonization By 2050 is ‘Achievable and Affordable’ News As part of the Virginia Clean Energy Summit on Tuesday, Batten professor William Shobe outlined how it is feasible for Virginia to “decarbonize” the state’s economy by 2050. Summer Savior: Students Flocking to Weldon Cooper Center's Clean Energy Initiative News Upon realizing the vast number of students who were suddenly losing summer jobs and internships, the Cooper Center leapt into action. Batten Professor Bill Shobe and his team made the decision to take on as many interns for its Virginia Clean Energy Project as it could possibly handle. Emerging Issues in Decentralized Resource Governance: Environmental Federalism, Spillovers, and Linked Socio-Ecological Systems Research Federalism as an academic discipline studies how multilevel political jurisdictions interact, both vertically and horizontally. Environmental federalism shifts and expands the focus by concentrating on environmental goods, which are related to ecosystem services. This shift necessarily expands the inquiry to include investigation of how ecosystem services respond to changes in resource management by human governance institutions. From Zero to Hero?: Why Integrated Assessment Modeling of Negative Emissions Technologies Is Hard and How We Can Do Better Research Efforts by the United Nations and others to develop a coordinated global response to climate change rely heavily on an ensemble of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to make projections linking human activities to climate outcomes (IPCC, 2014, 2018). IAMs are coupled models of the global economic and climate systems, first developed to represent fossil fuel emissions from the energy system (Reister and Edmonds, 1977), and later expanded to include land use change and forestry emissions, as well as non-CO2 emissions (Di Vittorio et al., 2014). The Economic Impacts of Positive Feedbacks Resulting from Deforestation Research Forests can affect environmental conditions in ways that enhance their survival. This effect may contribute to a positive feedback whereby deforestation could degrade environmental conditions and inhibit forest re-establishment. Rethinking Environmental Federalism in a Warming World Research Climate change policy analysis has focused almost exclusively on national policy and even on harmonizing climate policies across countries, implicitly assuming that the harmonization of climate policies at the subnational level would be mandated or guaranteed. We argue that the design and implementation of climate policy in a federal union will diverge in important ways from policy design in a unitary government. View All
Shobe Receives Research Award for Climate Work News William Shobe, a Batten professor and director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, has received UVA’s “Public Impact Focused Research Award” for his significant contributions in Virginia and beyond in the field of decarbonization and emissions markets.
Shobe: Net-zero emissions by 2050 are achievable, affordable in Va. News In an article for The Virginian-Pilot, Batten's William Shobe writes that with careful planning and policy design, decarbonization in the Commonwealth is achievable by 2050. Earlier this year, Shobe and his colleagues at UVA’s Energy Transition Initiative released the state's first study to analyze the actions needed to reach this goal.
The Future of Decarbonization: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Public Service Event All alumni, parents, and friends are invited to join us for a discussion on pathways to decarbonizing Virginia and the global economy. The panel of experts, all with strong ties to UVA and its mission of informed public service, will discuss the surge in enthusiasm for rapid decarbonization on Grounds, in the private sector, and among NGOs. The conversation will focus on the central importance of innovation, entrepreneurship, and a commitment to public service, all hallmarks of Hoos everywhere.
Batten Professor Tells Northam That Decarbonization By 2050 is ‘Achievable and Affordable’ News As part of the Virginia Clean Energy Summit on Tuesday, Batten professor William Shobe outlined how it is feasible for Virginia to “decarbonize” the state’s economy by 2050.
Summer Savior: Students Flocking to Weldon Cooper Center's Clean Energy Initiative News Upon realizing the vast number of students who were suddenly losing summer jobs and internships, the Cooper Center leapt into action. Batten Professor Bill Shobe and his team made the decision to take on as many interns for its Virginia Clean Energy Project as it could possibly handle.
Emerging Issues in Decentralized Resource Governance: Environmental Federalism, Spillovers, and Linked Socio-Ecological Systems Research Federalism as an academic discipline studies how multilevel political jurisdictions interact, both vertically and horizontally. Environmental federalism shifts and expands the focus by concentrating on environmental goods, which are related to ecosystem services. This shift necessarily expands the inquiry to include investigation of how ecosystem services respond to changes in resource management by human governance institutions.
From Zero to Hero?: Why Integrated Assessment Modeling of Negative Emissions Technologies Is Hard and How We Can Do Better Research Efforts by the United Nations and others to develop a coordinated global response to climate change rely heavily on an ensemble of Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to make projections linking human activities to climate outcomes (IPCC, 2014, 2018). IAMs are coupled models of the global economic and climate systems, first developed to represent fossil fuel emissions from the energy system (Reister and Edmonds, 1977), and later expanded to include land use change and forestry emissions, as well as non-CO2 emissions (Di Vittorio et al., 2014).
The Economic Impacts of Positive Feedbacks Resulting from Deforestation Research Forests can affect environmental conditions in ways that enhance their survival. This effect may contribute to a positive feedback whereby deforestation could degrade environmental conditions and inhibit forest re-establishment.
Rethinking Environmental Federalism in a Warming World Research Climate change policy analysis has focused almost exclusively on national policy and even on harmonizing climate policies across countries, implicitly assuming that the harmonization of climate policies at the subnational level would be mandated or guaranteed. We argue that the design and implementation of climate policy in a federal union will diverge in important ways from policy design in a unitary government.