John Glenn School of Public Affairs’ Assistant Professor Noah Dormady along with two of his former colleagues have won the first REMI Outstanding Economic Analysis Award in recognition of their paper, “Regional macroeconomic assessment of the Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan” published in the November 2011 issue of the journal, Regional Science: Policy and Practice.
Dormady wrote the paper while a doctoral student at the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy with Adam Rose and Dan Wei.
This is the first time Regional Economic Models, Inc. has given out an award. REMI is one of the most widely used commercial macroeconometric modeling systems and is used by government decision-makers to test the economic effects of their policies before they’re implemented.
The award citation notes how the study made three major contributions representing excellence in economic analysis and in the use of REMI models:
First, it represents an innovative application of the REMI
PI+ Model. It is the culmination of three years of methodological
development and refinement to apply the model to the analysis of the total regional macroeconomic impacts of climate action plans. The authors have developed a comprehensive methodology that involves one of the most advanced uses of the model and have developed further extensions to fill in important gaps for various applications.
Second, the study provides a methodology for the validation of REMI Model results. The authors performed sophisticated regression analyses to test the effects of key explanatory variables on gross state product and employment. They found that those variables are able to explain a major portion of the variance in independent variables, thereby demonstrating the consistency of REMI results.
Third, the methodology and application are of great practical use. This study contributed to the economic evaluation of the PA Climate Action Plan. Similar studies by the senior authors have also contributed to the design of executive orders or legislation on climate action planning in Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, New Mexico, and California.