Global Development and Environment Institute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Global Development And Environment Institute (GDAE, pronounced “gee-day”) is a research center at Tufts University founded in 1993. GDAE works to promote a better understanding of how societies can pursue their economic and community goals in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. GDAE pursues its mission through original research, policy work, publication projects, curriculum development, conferences and other activities

Dr. Neva Goodwin and Dr. William Moomaw are co-directors of GDAE. The Theory and Education program area, headed by Dr. Jonathan Harris is developing a comprehensive, teachable system of economic theory that will better serve human needs and respond to ecological realities. The program explores and develops alternatives to the standard economic paradigm, both in the form of new economic theories and as teachable curriculum materials. The Research and Policy program area, led by Dr. Frank Ackerman, carries out applied research on the effects of economic policies using an analytical framework that assesses the limitations of market-mechanisms for addressing social and environmental issues. Research priorities include energy and climate change, recycling and materials use, and globalization and sustainable economic integration.

GDAE researchers emphasize ecological health and the correlation between social and economic well-being. They work with an expansive understanding of economic systems that recognizes that an economic system is embedded in the physical contexts of technology and the natural world, as well as in the social/psychological contexts of history, politics, ethics, culture, institutions, and human motivations.

Between 1995 and 2001 GDAE produced the six-volume series, Frontier Issues in Economic Thought, which was published by Island Press [The articles that GDAE researchers selected and summarized for this project focus on the limitations of the mainstream economic paradigm and a wide range of creative efforts that have been and are being made to extend economic understanding.

In 2000, GDAE established the Leontief Prize. Named in honor Wassily Leontief, Nobel laureate and member of the GDAE advisory board, the annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to economic theory that address contemporary realities and support just and sustainable societies.