This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Maureen Cropper, an economics professor at the University of Maryland and senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). Raimi asks Maureen about a paper she recently coauthored, which takes a retrospective look at the Clean Air Act, as this year we mark the 50th anniversary of its 1970 amendments. With more than 50 years of data since the original Clean Air Act came into existence in 1963, Cropper et al.'s new paper reviews how the law has been implemented, drawing out key lessons and research questions that we may be able to apply to good effect in the next 50 years.

References and recommendations:

"Looking Back at Fifty Years of the Clean Air Act" by Joseph E. Aldy, Maximilian Auffhammer, Maureen L. Cropper, Arthur G. Fraas, and Richard D. Morgenstern; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/looking-back-at-fifty-years-of-the-clean-air-act/

Fall 2019 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (vol. 33, no. 4), which focuses in part on the fiftieth anniversary of the Clean Air and Water Acts; https://www.aeaweb.org/issues/568

"What Do Economists Have to Say about the Clean Air Act 50 Years after the Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency?" by Janet Currie and Reed Walker; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.3

"Policy Evolution under the Clean Air Act" by Richard Schmalensee and Robert N. Stavins; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.27

"US Water Pollution Regulation over the Past Half Century: Burning Waters to Crystal Springs?" by David A. Keiser and Joseph S. Shapiro; https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.51

Purple Air, a personal monitor for real-time air-quality assessments; https://www2.purpleair.com/