Faculty
Christopher Knittel is the Associate Dean for Climate and Sustainability, the George P. Shultz Professor and a Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Prior to MIT Sloan, Knittel taught at the University of California, Davis, and at Boston University. His research focuses on industrial organization, environmental economics, and applied econometrics.
Knittel is an associate editor of The American Economic Journal— Economic Policy, The Journal of Industrial Economics, and the Journal of Energy Markets. His research has appeared in The American Economic Review, The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Journal of Industrial Economics, The Energy Journal, and other academic journals. He also is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Productivity, Industrial Organization, and Energy and Environmental Economics groups.
Knittel holds a BA in economics and political science from California State University, Stanislaus; an MA in economics from the University of California, Davis; and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
http://knittel.world
Knittel, Christopher R., and Samuel Stolper. The Economic Journal. Forthcoming. NBER Working Paper.
Batlle, Carlos, Peter Heller, Christopher R. Knittel, and Tim Schittekatte. Science Advances Vol. 10, No. 41 (2024): 1-10. Download Paper.
Armstrong, Les, Alexa Canaan, Christopher R. Knittel, Gilbert Metcalf, and Tim Schittekatte. Science Vol. 385, No. 6704 (2024): 31-33.
Graham, Kailin and Christopher Knittel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol. 121, No. 7 (2024).
Dimanchev, Emil and Christopher R. Knittel. Energy Economics Vol. 122, (2023): 106697. SSRN Preprint.
Caminade, Juliette, Juan Carvajal, and Christopher R. Knittel. Competition Vol. 32, No. 2 (2022): 30-43.
Data centers that shift workload to different times of day save money, but the environmental impact depends on the local grid.
Climate policy expert Christopher Knittel handicaps the likelihood of tariffs, cuts to IRA subsidies, and a carbon tax under the new administration.
In 2023, research by Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability, and co-authors projected that federal tax credits, combined with efforts to install charging stations on highways nationwide, would increase EV adoption by 18% through the end of the decade. "Those are customers that are buying it because the tax credit exists, and if you pull it away, they're gonna go back to the internal combustion engine vehicle," Knittel said.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday that rising electricity prices are what he "worries about most" as Americans face high power bills. A recent consumer price index report found electricity prices were growing at more than double the rate of inflation. "Residential retail electricity prices are set with basically a lag," said Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability. "Trump's effects on the rate changes won't take place until after the midterms."
Looming over the debate over a new gas pipeline is the cost of continuing to emit planet-warming emissions. Though not directly factored into monthly energy bills, there is a steep cost to climate change, said Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability. "Building a pipeline is almost surely going to lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. And that's the unpriced externality here," he said.
Data centers with the capability to shift workloads to different times can avoid stressing the electric grid and save consumers money — but the shifts may increase power plant emissions in some markets, according to new research co-authored by associate dean for climate and sustainability Christopher Knittel. "Our report underscores the urgency of rethinking grid management and operating data centers more flexibly — especially when it comes to AI training," he said.
