Don Fullerton

Bio

Don Fullerton is Gutgsell Professor of Finance (Emeritus) at the U. of Illinois, and an Affiliate of emLab at the Bren School, UCSB. He received a BA from Cornell, and a PhD in Economics from U.C. Berkeley. He taught at Princeton, UVA, Carnegie Mellon, and Texas, before joining Illinois in 2008. From 1985 to 1987, he served in the U.S. Treasury Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary (for Tax Analysis). His research has analyzed distributional and efficiency effects of various policies. His current work on the “Circular Economy” analyzes policies to reduce virgin materials extraction, to design products for easier recycling or that last longer, and to reduce negative effects of extraction, production, and disposal. In addition to journal articles and books, he was a lead author for the 5th Assessment Report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014), and a major report about economy-wide models for the U.S.EPA Science Advisory Board (2017), as well as a book about recycling policy published by the National Academy of Sciences (2025). He likes travel, camping, biking, walking the dog, and interrupting seminar speakers at UCSB.