John E. Parsons
Deputy Director for Research,
Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E19-411
400 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
(617) 324-3745
jparsons@mit.edu
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I am a financial economist working in the area of corporate finance, valuation, capital investment and financial risk management. Focus is on the energy industry and on environmental problems, especially climate change. I have significant experience analyzing investments in the nuclear industry and am working on lecture notes on the economics of nuclear power.
MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) is the focus at MIT for research activity in energy economics since the Center's founding in the mid-1970s, and in environmental economics since the early 1990s. CEEPR promotes rigorous and objective empirical research at MIT on issues related to energy and environmental policy to support decision-making by government and industry. The results of the research are disseminated through publications, workshops, educational programs and other public outreach activities. Economics research at CEEPR is integrated with engineering and science in collaboration with faculty throughout MIT. The relevance and validity of the research is enhanced through cooperation with government and industry associates in countries around the globe.
CEEPR gave me my first engagement in applied financial economics in the mid-1980s when I was pulled in to a major study on the evolution of the international natural gas markets and asked to analyze the role of contracts in financing the development of new natural gas fields and LNG projects. In subsequent years, CEEPR underwrote a series of my studies in the application of corporate finance to practical problems in financing energy investments. Over the years, I stayed in touch, and in 2005 they brought me back as the Executive Director. Through CEEPR, I am able to continue my research into corporate finance and risk management issues as they apply to energy companies and environmental problems, and I contribute knowledge of finance and economics to some of MIT’s interdisciplinary collaborations on energy and environmental policy issues.