Wayne B. Gray is now an Emeritus Professor, having taught at Clark from 1984, when he received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, until 2025, when he retired from teaching. Professor Gray is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Executive Director of the Boston Federal Statistical Research Data Center. He continues to be active in research (and playing squash). His research focuses on regulatory effectiveness and the economic consequences of government regulation of environmental and workplace hazards. He has studied regulation’s impact on employment, productivity, investment and plant location, primarily using plant-level manufacturing data, as well as demonstrating improvements in workplace safety and health, regulatory compliance and pollution emissions. His current projects include one examining the impact of OSHA interventions on construction workplace hazards and another using differences in the distribution of greenhouse gas emissions across plants within an industry to predict the impact of proposed regulations on that industry.
Wayne Gray
Professor Emeritus, Economics
- About
- Scholarly and creative works
- Awards and grants
Degrees
- Ph.D. in Economics, Harvard University, 1984
- M.A. in Economics, Harvard University, 1979
- B.A. in Economics and Mathematics, Dartmouth College, 1977
Affiliated Department
Scholarly and creative works
-
Do Variations in State Consultation Programs Affect Construction Fatality Rates?
American Journal of Industrial MedicineMarch2026Vol. 69Issue #3 -
Decomposition Analysis of Racial Income Inequality in the United States
The American EconomistMarch2025Vol. 70Issue #1 -
When do Firms Shift Production Across States to Avoid Environmental Regulation?
Land EconomicsMarch2024 -
Preventing Construction Deaths: The Role of Public Policies
Regulation and GovernanceJuly2023Vol. 17Issue #3 -
Documenting the 1973 and 1978 Surveys of Water Use in Manufacturing (SWUM)
AugustIssue #Census Technical Note CES-TN-2023-14U.S. Census Bureau – Center for Economic Studies -
Environmental Regulation and Labor Demand – What Does the Evidence Tell Us?
Annual Review of Resource EconomicsFall2023 -
How Does State-Level Carbon Pricing in the United States Affect Industrial Competitiveness?
Environmental and Resource EconomicsNovember2022Issue #83(3) -
Oxford Encyclopedia of Environmental Economics
Chapter: Economics of Environmental Compliance and EnforcementPublished by Oxford University Press2022 -
The re-occurrence of violations in occupational safety and health administration inspections
Regulation & GovernanceOctober 20212021Vol. 15Issue #4 -
NBER-CES Manufacturing Industry Database
March -
THE IMPACT OF EPA’S CLUSTER RULE ON PLANT LEVEL PRODUCTIVITY
AERE Virtual ConferenceVirtualJun2020Sponsored by Association of Environmental and Resource Economists -
How Does State-Level Carbon Pricing in the United States Affect Industrial Competitiveness?
NBER working paperjanuaryIssue #WP 26629NBER -
The Impact of State Renewable Portfolio Standards on Electric Utilities` Stock Returns
2019 Summer Conference of the Association of Environmental and Resource EconomistsLake Tahoe, Nevada2019-05-302019Sponsored by Association of Environmental and Resource Economists -
Introduction to the Boston Federal Statistical Research Data Center
International Seminar on Microdata Develoment and ApplicationBeijing, China2019-11-212019Sponsored by Tsinghua University -
The Impacts of Lower Natural Gas Prices on Jobs in the U.S. Manufacturing Sector
Energy Journal2019/09//2019Vol. 40Issue #5 -
Carbon tax competitiveness concerns: Assessing a best practices carbon credit
National Tax Journal2017Vol. 70Issue #2 -
Do EPA regulations affect labor demand? Evidence from the pulp and paper industry
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management2014Vol. 68Issue #1 -
A new estimate of the impact of OSHA inspections on manufacturing injury rates, 1998-2005
American Journal of Industrial Medicine2012Vol. 55Issue #11 -
The effectiveness of environmental monitoring and enforcement: A review of the empirical evidence
Review of Environmental Economics and Policy2011Vol. 5Issue #1 -
The Pennsylvania certified safety committee program: An evaluation of participation and effects on work injury rates
American Journal of Industrial Medicine2010Vol. 53Issue #8 -
The role of inspection sequence in compliance with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) standards: Interpretations and implications
Regulation and Governance2010Vol. 4Issue #1 -
What kinds of injuries do OSHA inspections prevent?
Journal of Safety Research2010Vol. 41Issue #4 -
Agency structure and firm culture: OSHA, EPA, and the steel industry
Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization2007Vol. 23Issue #3 -
Are farmland preservation program easement restrictions capitalized into farmland prices? What can a propensity score matching analysis tell us?
Review of Agricultural Economics2007Vol. 29Issue #3 -
The environmental performance of polluting plants: A spatial analysis
Journal of Regional Science2007Vol. 47Issue #1 -
Assessing multi-dimensional performance: Environmental and economic outcomes
Journal of Productivity Analysis2006Vol. 26Issue #3 -
Inside the black box: How do OSHA inspections lead to reductions in workplace injuries?
Law and Policy2005Vol. 27Issue #2 -
Pollution abatement expenditures and plant-level productivity: A production function approach
Ecological Economics2005Vol. 54Issue #2-3 -
The declining effects of OSHA inspections on manufacturing injuries, 1979-1998
Industrial and Labor Relations Review2005Vol. 58Issue #4 -
When and why do plants comply? Paper mills in the 1980s
Law and Policy2005Vol. 27Issue #2 -
‘Optimal’ pollution abatement – Whose benefits matter, and how much?
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management2004Vol. 47Issue #3 -
Plant vintage, technology, and environmental regulation
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management2003Vol. 46Issue #3 -
What determines environmental performance at paper mills? the roles of abatement spending, regulation, and efficiency
Topics in Economic Analysis and Policy2003Vol. 3Issue #1 -
Environmental regulation, investment timing, and technology choice
Journal of Industrial Economics1998Vol. 46Issue #2 -
Can government facilitate cooperation? An informational model of OSHA enforcement
American Journal of Political Science1997Vol. 41Issue #3 -
Compliance and enforcement: Air pollution regulation in the U.S. steel industry
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management1996Vol. 31Issue #1 -
Analyzing the Equity and Efficiency of OSHA Enforcement
Law \& Policy1991Vol. 13Issue #3 -
Enforcement of pollution regulations in a declining industry
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management1991Vol. 21Issue #3 -
OSHA enforcement and workplace injuries: A behavioral approach to risk assessment
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty1990Vol. 3Issue #3
Awards and grants
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Contribution of State Consultations to Preventing Fatalities in Construction
NIOSH – CPWR
Jun. 1, 2023 – May. 31, 2024 -
Assessing Public Policy Intervention on Construction Fatality Rates
NIOSH
Aug. 1, 2019 – Feb. 28, 2020
