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George S. Tolley, Ph.D.
George Tolley is a leader in the development of methods and applications of
benefit estimation, and their use in policy. Principle interests include R&D policy and
health economics. Much of his research has entailed inter-disciplinary work with
scientists. He has a long record of joint work with Argonne National Laboratory. As
President of RCF, he has conducted over 100 benefit-cost analyses, including studies of
air quality standards for the City of Houston and location of nuclear waste sites for the
U.S. Department of Energy. In 2004 he completed a year-long study of the commercial
viability of nuclear power for the Undersecretary of Energy, including relationships
between advanced nuclear reactors and a hydrogen economy. Since 2005 he has led a
project for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to model investment in infrastructure
during a transition to a hydrogen transportation economy in the United States, and in
2006 he led another study for DOE on the impact of a transition to hydrogen on
employment in the United States.
Dr. Tolley is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago and
President of RCF Economic and Financial Consulting, Inc. He holds an Honorary
Doctorate from North Carolina State University. He founded and is now Honorary Editor
of the Elsevier professional journal Resource and Energy Economics. He is a Fellow of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is a founding
member of the International Association of Energy Economics (IAEE). He has held
executive positions in the Federal Government, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury for Tax Policy and Director of the Economic Development Division of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, and has served on several committees of the National
Academy of Sciences, including Automotive Pollution, Water Policy, and Energy
Engineering.
Dr. Tolley has published over 20 books, including several influential volumes in
environmental and urban economics, over 100 journal articles and numerous book
chapters, monographs, technical studies, book reviews and popular articles.
Education
A.B., American University of Texas, 1947
A.M., University of Chicago, 1950
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1955
Selected Publications
The Economics of R&D Policy, edited by George S. Tolley, James H. Hodge, and James F.
Oemke. New York: Praeger, 1985.
Valuing Health for Policy: An Economic Approach, co-editor. University of Chicago Press, 1994.
(Donald Kenkel and Robert Fabian, co-editors.)
The Economic Future of Nuclear Power. Chicago: University of Chicago and Argonne National
Laboratory. August 2004. (Donald W. Jones, co-author)
Effects of a Transition to a Hydrogen Economy on Employment in the United States. A Report to
Congress for the U.S. Department of Energy, November 2006. (Donald W. Jones, co-author)
Clearing Houston’s Air: An Economic Evaluation of Clean Air Act Compliance Strategy
Alternatives. (Barton Smith, co-author.) Texas Public Policy Foundation, February, 2001.
“Benefit-Cost Analysis and Environmental Regulation: Recent Developments,” Chapter 10, 1997
Wiley Environmental Law Update edited by Carole Stern and Christian Volz, Somerset, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. (Robert Fabian, co-author).
“Cost-effectiveness of atypical antipsychotic medications versus conventional medication,”
Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy 7(13), September 2006. With Patricia Hanrahan, Daniel J.
Luchins, and Robert Fabian.
“Economic Grand Rounds: Allocating Funds for Medications and Psychosocial Interventions:
How Consumers Would Divide the Pie,” Psychiatric Services, 56(7): 799-800, July 2005. (Daniel
Luchins, Irinel Chiriac, Patricia Hanrahan, Morris Goldman, Robert Fabian, co-authors)
“Child Discipline and Family Decision Making,” Journal of Socio-Economics 33(2):153- 173,
April 2004. (Shaffdeen Amuwo, Robert Fabian, Ardith Spence, and Jacqueline Hill, co-authors.)
“Contingent Valuation and Valuing Children’s Health,” Valuing Health for Environmental Policy
with Special Emphasis on Children’s Health Issues. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Conference, Washington, D.C., March 23-24, 1999. Website:
http://www.epa.gov/oppe/eaed/eedhmpg.htm (Robert Fabian, co -author.)
“Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Common Sense of Environmental Policy.” In Cost-Benefit
Analysis and Environmental Regulations: Politics, Ethics and Methods, co-edited by Daniel
Swartzman, Richard A. Liroff and Kevin G. Croke. Washington, D.C.: The Conservation
Foundation, 1982.
“Social Costs and the Rural-Urban Balance.” Externalities in the Transformation of Agriculture:
Distribution of Benefits and Costs from Developments, co- edited by Earl O. Heady and Larry R.
Whiting. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1975. (Barton Smith, co- author.)
Benefits and Costs of Soil Conservation in the South and its Subregions, Technical Bulletin No.
172, pp. 58, Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Agricultural Experiment Station, 1966. (H. W.
Grubb, co-author.)
“Extensions of Benefit-Cost Analysis.” The American Economic Review 52 (1962): 459-468.
(Cleon Harrell, co-author.)