Kirk Hamilton

Kirk’s broad research focus is on natural resource and environmental accounting as a tool to analyze sustainability and as a guide to public policy. Examples include fiscal policies for extractive economies, the establishment of Sovereign Wealth Funds, and the treatment of resource discoveries in national accounting.

Background

Kirk Hamilton is Emeritus Lead Economist of the Development Research Group of the World Bank, and co-author of World Development Report 2010 Development and Climate Change. He is principal author of Where is the Wealth of Nations? (2006), co-author of The Changing Wealth of Nations (2011), as well as China 2030, and led research on wealth and sustainability, the links between poverty and environment, and the economics of climate change.

Dr. Hamilton has researched and published extensively on growth theory and the economics of sustainable development. He also served as Assistant Director of National Accounts for the Government of Canada, where his responsibilities included developing an environmental national accounting program.

His degrees include a PhD in Economics and MSc in Resource and Environmental Economics from University College London, as well as a BSc (Eng.) from Queen’s University at Kingston.

Research interests

– Wealth and sustainability

– Growth theory

– Subjective wellbeing and urban green space

– Public health co-benefits of GHG abatement