Hlavka's Dissertation Research Wins Conference Prize

July 24, 2012 — A research paper by PRGS student Eileen Hlavka (cohort '07) has been awarded the Special Plenary Paper Prize of the 13th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation.

Hlavka said her paper, "The Federal Tax Credit Impacts on Wind and Solar Innovation," is interdisciplinary and built off methods she learned from her On the Job Training (OJT) research project with RAND chief technology officer Sid Dalal.

In conducting her research, Hlavka said, "I was very much using expertise I learned at PRGS and that I'm not sure I would have learned at any one other place." The research was conducted using the Cazier Award and EPA STAR Fellowship she had received in her third and fourth years at PRGS.

GCET is an international conference that hosts a wide range of theoretical and applied policy research, providing global leadership in policy discussions on environmental policy instrument choice.

This year's conference featured a special call for papers on "the potential for environmental taxation to induce technological progress in reducing greenhouse gases," of which Hlavka's paper was selected as "the paper providing the most original and substantial contribution to climate policy."