Don Fullerton

Don Fullerton is a Visiting Professor at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of the Environment and Gutgsell Professor Emeritus of Finance at the University of Illinois. His research analyzes economic efficiency and distributional impacts of environmental policies, tax systems, and circular economy transitions.

Current work examines circular economy implementation challenges, carbon tax design, and behavioral responses to environmental pricing mechanisms. He employs computational general equilibrium models to assess policy alternatives and distributional outcomes across socioeconomic groups.

As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the U.S. Treasury (1985-1987), he directed economic analysis of tax reforms. He served as Lead Author for the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (2011-2014) and edited the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2017-2019).

His research bridges environmental economics, public finance, and sustainability policy to inform climate mitigation strategies and equitable policy design.