"Green Light or Greenwash? Evaluating the Promise of Voluntary and Information-Based Environmental Approaches"

Donna Ramirez Harrington

Professor and Chair

Department of Economics

Professor Ramirez Harrington will explore how voluntary and information-based approaches (VIBAs) have been used to address various pollution challenges. She will discuss how her findings align with the environmental economics literature, particularly in the context of knowledge accumulation, diffusion, and the Porter Hypothesis.
 
Her lecture will also examine the role of these policy instruments in shaping the regulatory landscape in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, she will highlight key insights from her research and that of others in the field, demonstrating how decentralized approaches can complement broader regulatory frameworks for managing toxic pollution, water pollution, and greenhouse gases.

Donna Ramirez Harrington joins the UVM Economics Department from the University of Guelph, where she served as an Assistant Professor from 2004 to 2007. She earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004 and completed her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of the Philippines in 1996.
 
Currently, she is the Chair of the Economics Department and the President of the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association. She is also organizing the association’s 2025 annual conference, which will take place here in Burlington in June. Additionally, she has been a member of the Editorial Board of Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy from 2016 to 2024.
 
Her research focuses on environmental economics and policy, including approaches that rely on voluntary adoption of environmental practices and disclosure of environmental information.

Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Time: 4:30 pm

Location: Memorial Lounge, Waterman