Michael Ash
Co-Director, Corporate Toxics Information Project, and Professor of Economics
Michael Ash (Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Berkeley 1999) is professor of economics and public policy and chair of the Economics Department at University of Massachusetts Amherst. His areas of research are labor, health, and environmental economics, examined through quantitative models. Ash's main interests in environmental policy include disclosure and right-to-know laws, greenhouse-gas policy, and environmental justice. At UMass Amherst, Ash co-directs the Corporate Toxics Information Project of the Political Economy Research Institute, which publishes the Toxic 100, an index that identifies top U.S. toxic polluters among large corporations. In 2013, Ph.D. student Thomas Herndon, colleague Robert Pollin, and Ash critiqued the argument of Harvard University economics professors Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff that high public debt strangles economic growth. Herndon, Ash, and Pollin identified errors in Reinhart-Rogoff, undermined its key arguments, and spurred reassessment of the austerity agenda. Ash also served as staff labor economist for the Council of Economic Advisers (Washington, DC) in 1995-1996 and as Princeton Project 55 Fellow for the Trenton Office of Policy Studies (Trenton, NJ) in 1991-1992.

Recent Research
-
New Measures Identify Worst Polluting U.S. Corporations
December 2024
-
Updated Indexes from PERI Name top Climate, Air, and Water Polluters
January 2024
-
The International Monetary Fund and Neonatal Mortality Rates, 1985-2018
December 2023
-
Greenhouse Suppliers 100: A Ranking of Corporate Producers of Greenhouse Gas Precursors in the USA
September 2023
-
Greenhouse 100 Suppliers Index Names Top National and State Suppliers of Fossil Fuels
October 2023
-
Not So Clear: Revisiting the Impacts of Cap-and-Trade on Environmental Justice
June 2023
-
Environmental Inequality in Industrial Brownfields: Evidence from French Municipalities
March 2023
-
Environmental Justice and Carbon Pricing: Can They Be Reconciled?
March 2023
-
Air Toxics at School
February 2023