BOSTON — Dr. Albert L. “Nick” Nichols has joined NERA Economic Consulting as a vice president in the firm’s Environment Group.  He is based in NERA’s Boston office.

Nichols is an expert in environmental economics and policy, including emission trading, benefit-cost analysis and climate change.  He also directs projects in energy policy and antitrust and competition policy in high-tech industries.  He has directed many projects involving the use of benefit-cost and cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate proposed regulations in the areas of environment, energy, and health and safety regulation.

Also, Nichols has evaluated a wide range of types of policies, including ambient air quality attainment plans; proposed standards for various types of pollution sources (including mobile, stationary, and fuels); and issues of both health and natural resource damages associated with hazardous waste.

Nichols was previously at NERA between 1989 and 2004.

Nichols’ experience in emission trading and other economic incentives for environmental protection dates back to his PhD dissertation, the theoretical portion of which was published as “Targeting Economic Incentives for Environmental Protection” (MIT Press) and the empirical portion of which was published as a case study in “Incentives for Environmental Protection” (T.C. Schelling, ed., MIT Press).  He has directed numerous projects in the field, addressing greenhouse gases, conventional air pollutants (SO2, NOx and VOCs) and toxic air pollutants.  As director of the Economic Analysis Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he played a leading role in the development of an innovative banking program for the final phasedown of lead in gasoline.

Nichols’s prior positions include associate professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and director of the Economic Analysis Division of the EPA.  He has authored numerous articles in books and professional journals.

Nichols holds a Ph.D. and an MPP in public policy from Harvard University and a B.A. from Stanford University.

NERA Economic Consulting is an international firm with more than 600 professionals in more than 20 offices across North and South America, Europe and Asia Pacific.  It is a unit of the Oliver Wyman Group, an MMC company.