Buddhist Economics Focus Of New UC Berkeley Research Center

BERKELEY, CA — A new policy research center was announced this week by University of California, Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

The Climate and Society Center will focus on policies aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions through an equity lens. Professors Clair Brown of UC Berkeley's Department of Economics and Julia Walsh of the university's Department of Public Health will serve as the coordinators with faculty and community members.

Brown, former IRLE director, authored "Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science," which is listed as foundational to the center's mission.

Brown's influential book dispels the power of market economics, self-interest and world domination in place of altruism, social interdependence and respect for nature.

"Our economic focus on increase and consumption isn't working, is there a different model?" asks an explainer video on the center's website.

The center will produce papers and generate economic statistics to be used by lawmakers in policies aimed at divestment from fossil fuel assets. One project will be an archive of economic policies around the world that are effective at sharing wealth and reducing suffering. Another will focus on state and national economies and generate metrics that indicate their net benefits to society and the environment.

They will also conduct local and state bill analysis, which was something Brown did in her previous position in the IRLE as program chair for its Center for Work, Technology and Society.

"We did research on a city council bill in the city of Richmond about ending coal exports," said IRLE spokesperson Ana Fox-Hodess. "We looked at the economic and health impacts of coal exports in support of the bill, and in part as a result of this analysis, the city council voted to end coal exports in Richmond."

The Richmond City Council voted in 2020 to stop shipments and storage of coal between the U.S. and Asia by the end of 2026. Fox-Hodess said the center is now studying a new bill that will measure the health and social benefits of keeping a 3,000-foot buffer zone between oil and gas sites and homes and schools.

"As an endowed research center, that means that they will be able to put money behind funding faculty and funding collaborations between faculty and community groups and also money to do outreach to policymakers in the form of analysis and proposals," said Fox-Hodess. "This center in particular is going to look at the costs and benefits of different policies on vulnerable communities."

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