Karthik Ramanna

Corporate decarbonization policy has stagnated under ideological divisions. Arguing that anthropogenic emissions are driven by customer preferences and that such preferences can shift with improved information, Karthik Ramanna advocates for a new approach: an economy-wide system of reliable and comparable accounts of the embedded emissions in products to allow customers (and investors) to make more-informed decisions aligned with underlying preferences. In part II of his two-part series (read part I here), Ramanna explores the principles of an accounting methodology to provide better greenhouse gas emissions data to business customers and consumers and the reasons why, based on historical precedent, such a system is readily adoptable and likely to prove effective. 

Corporate decarbonization policy has stagnated under ideological divisions. Arguing that anthropogenic emissions are driven by customer preferences and that such preferences can shift with improved information, Karthik Ramanna advocates for a new approach: an economy-wide system of reliable and comparable accounts of the embedded emissions in products to allow customers (and investors) to make better-informed decisions aligned with underlying preferences. In the first of two articles, Ramanna discusses why top-down regulatory approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have failed to generate decarbonization at meaningful scales and the virtues of a pro-market approach to incentivizing and enabling greener corporate and consumer behavior.

Congress is considering eliminating the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the independent federal agency that “audits the auditors.” Karthik Ramanna and Nemit Shroff write...

Karthik Ramanna writes that if the United States adopts a trade policy based on a dynamic emissions accounting method, it can achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of leveling the manufacturing playing field for American companies by penalizing foreign “dirty” producers, while also mitigating inflation and the risk of a trade war.

Polarization has sundered American politics and the crucial exchange of ideas and opinions underpinning its democracy. Karthik Ramanna writes that on this inauguration day,...

The following is an excerpt from Karthik Ramanna’s new book, “The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World,” now out at Harvard Business Review Press. Ramanna will discuss his new book tomorrow, October 31, 2024, at an event cohosted by the Stigler Center and the Rustandy Center. You can register here to attend the event in-person or on the livestream.

A provision within the Biden administration’s Build Back Better bill that assesses a minimum tax on certain companies based on their income reported to...

Robert Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna propose a new approach for verifiable accounting on indirect corporate emissions that would apply to all corporations, increase incentives...

In 2010, as the world was reeling from the global financial crisis, the body that determines generally accepted accounting principles for listed corporations in...

Stiglerian capture and corrosive cultural capture, its left-leaning parallel, are ostensibly symbionts, two attempts at identifying impediments to keeping markets competitive by preventing the...