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.
Senga, Juan Ramon L., Audun Botterud, John E. Parsons, S. Drew Story, and Christopher R. Knittel. Nature Energy. Forthcoming.
Clausing, Kimberly A., Christopher R. Knittel, and Catherine Wolfram. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Forthcoming.
Espiritu Argosino, Fischer J. and Christopher R. Knittel, Working Paper. December 2025.
Knittel, Christopher R., and Samuel Stolper. The Economic Journal Vol. 135, No. 672 (2025): 2377-2401. NBER Working Paper.
Knittel, Christopher R., Juan Ramon L. Senga, and Shen Wang, MIT Sloan Working Paper 7348-25. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, July 2025. NBER Working Paper No. 34065.
Knittel, Christopher R., Gilbert E. Metcalf, and Shereein Saraf, MIT Sloan Working Paper 7349-25. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, June 2025. NBER Working Paper No. 33894.
Here’s how aircraft noise at major airports in Boston, Chicago, and Seattle affected housing prices.
Study finds that over 25 years, while large-scale renewables lower residential electricity prices, state electric rate structures can cause rooftop solar to drive up costs for non-solar households.
Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability, said academic research had found that the Jones Act, a maritime law that restricts the way oil is shipped within the United States, added about 1.5 cents to the cost of gasoline. "It's not a huge number, but adds up given how much gasoline we consume," he said.
Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability, and co-author wrote: "Your electricity bill has become a political lightning rod. As rates climb, politicians and pundits have rushed to assign blame, with renewable energy policies often cast as the culprit. But new research points to a more nuanced story. Clean energy resources that cut emissions are not the reason electricity bills are rising. The problem is not renewables themselves; it is how they are paid for."
Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability, warned that a slowdown in economic activity related to high gas prices could push the economy toward a downturn. He said that if the conflict "ends tomorrow, then I think we'll be in fine shape. But if this continues, for a month, two months or even longer, then I think we're certainly above the 50 percent chance of a recession."
Markets now seem to be betting on a longer conflict, which could mean global oil supplies are disrupted for months, said professor Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability. Even when the conflict does settle down and oil prices fall, gas prices will likely take their time catching up."Gas prices track oil prices almost immediately when oil prices are going up. But when oil prices are going down, gas prices lag behind," he said.
