Scholars and practitioners will assess the record of energy efficiency in housing and cities at the conference Present & Retrospect: The Work of John M. Quigley October 22-23 at the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge. The conference is co-sponsored with the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy in honor of the late Berkeley professor John M. Quigley, who was an original organizing partner for the event before his death in May of this year.
The presentations on Monday, October 22 will address the original theme of energy efficiency and cities, a topic that Quigley had recently given much attention. The topics will include the economics of energy-efficient cities, including improvements in commercial and office buildings, financing mechanisms for energy-efficient retrofits, and dynamics of electricity supply and shortages; energy demand in the developing world and cities and climate change policy in Asia; the developer's perspective on residential green building and consumer responses to energy price increases; and the health benefits of carbon pricing in transportation.
The second day of the conference will reflect more broadly on Quigley's contribution to urban economics, with presentations by his former colleagues, co-authors and students. These papers address topics including immigrants and employment, land use and urbanization in developing countries, legacy pension costs for local governments, rent control and other wide-ranging topics encompassing Quigley's distinguished career.
The conference will feature leading scholars such as Edward Glaeser, José A. Gómez-Ibáñez, and John Macomber from Harvard University, Larry Rosenthal and Catherine Wolfram from the University of California, Berkeley, Tracy Gordon from The Brookings Institution, and Matthew Kahn from the University of California Los Angeles, among many others.