Gilbert E Metcalf

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Gilbert E Metcalf

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Gilbert E. Metcalf is a Visiting Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

He is the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service and Professor of Economics Emeritus at Tufts University.

In addition, he is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a University Fellow at Resources For The Future. Metcalf's primary research area is applied public finance with particular interests in taxation, energy, and environmental economics. His current research focuses on policy evaluation and design in the area of energy and climate change. He has frequently testified before Congress, served on expert panels for the National Academies of Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and served as a consultant to numerous other organizations. During 2011 and 2012, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy at the U.S. Department of Treasury where he was the founding U.S. Board Member for the UN based Green Climate Fund.

He has published extensively in academic journals and books on various topics including energy and tax policy.

Metcalf received a BA in mathematics from Amherst College, an MS in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

Follow me on Bluesky: @gibmetcalf.bsky.social

Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/tufts.edu/gmetcalf  

 

Media Highlights

Press Fortune

Trump's red-dyed diesel order sounds like a tax cut. Economists say it's a 24-cent IOU that could raise prices for farmers

Visiting professor Gilbert Metcalf said: "On the supply side, it's not going to lead to any more diesel coming online, all it does is change some of the diesel that's out there to be usable by anyone. On the demand side, if we shift some of that diesel into road use, what does that mean? It means that the diesel is going to be more expensive for farmers and other off-road use, like construction."

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Press WBUR

With more fuel-efficient cars and EVs on the road, we need to rethink how we tax auto travel

Associate dean Christopher Knittel and visiting professor Gilbert E Metcalf wrote: "If the goal is to make drivers pay for the roads they use, the right unit of taxation is not vehicle ownership. It is miles driven. A household that drives an electric vehicle 3,000 miles a year does not impose the same road-use burden as one that drives 20,000 miles a year. A flat annual fee treats them as if they do. That is not a user fee. It is a registration surcharge."

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Press Marketplace

Why suspending the gas tax won't help consumers

Eliminating the federal gas tax won't make a meaningful difference when gas prices have gone up by 40% or higher in parts of the country, said visiting professor Gilbert Metcalf. Farmers already get an exemption from the tax. "If eliminating the tax leads to a little bit more demand for gasoline, then that's just going to drive up the pre-tax price, which will just hurt farmers yet again," Metcalf said.

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