Risa Lewis

Biography

Risa is a PhD student in the Economics and Environmental Science (EES) Emphasis. She is interested in the intersection of behavioral economics and environmental economics, with her current work focusing on i) the use and environmental impacts of public transit and ii) the private provision of carbon emissions reduction as it relates to underlying theories of decision-making (e.g. satisficing, complexity) and policy (e.g. carbon pricing, crowding out from taxes).

Prior to coming to the Bren School, Risa graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Applied and Resource Economics. During her undergraduate career, Risa analyzed experiments on children’s nutritional choices at Cornell University and studied the impacts of ombud support for implementation of on-farm anaerobic digesters in part with Project Drawdown. She was very fortunate to have attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2018, where the clear demand for interdisciplinary work and the limitations of international cooperation have continued to bolster her commitment to engaging behavioral insights into environmental research.