The physics, economics, and political economy of climate risk

A holistic treatment of the issue of climate change-related risk requires merging three topics from natural and social science: climate physics, economics, and the political economy. In this thesis, I discuss each of these aspects of the issue of climate change in isolation and in tandem. In particular, I present physical models for how soil moisture influences temperature extremes and how we may learn climate sensitivity from new observations in the future. I formulate and solve numerous integrated climate-economy models, including an asset pricing-based approach to carbon taxation and a model for how political economy constraints influence optimal decarbonization investment strategies. Each of these papers is meant to shed light on the myriad dimensions of the climate issue, discuss limitations in our current approaches, and provide insight into what can be done in the future.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Bauer, Adam Michael

Contributors dc:contributor

• Proistosescu, Cristian
• Sriver, Ryan
• Gammie, Charles F
• Wagner, Gernot
• Droegemeier, Kelvin K

• climate risk
• climate economics
• climate science
• climate change
• risk
• political economy

Statement dc:rights

• 2024, Adam Michael Bauer

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129372

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129372