William Nordhaus: A disputable Nobel? Externalities, climate change and governmental action

In 2018 William Nordhaus was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to the macroeconomics of climate change. Nevertheless, Nordhaus since the early 1970s was engaged in an academic struggle to contrast the major supporters of The Limits to Growth. Later, though acknowledging some impact of climate change on economic activity and suggesting taxes on greenhouse emissions, he systematically opposed pessimistic views concerning global warming; thus putting off governmental action. The aim of this paper is to enquire into Nordhaus’s contributions to the economics of climate change, and their impact on academic and public debates.