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Research Interests: Climate Change, Political Economy, Climate Finance, Economic Policy, Mixed Methods

Daniel Driscoll is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia. His work lies at the intersection of decarbonization, economic policy, and finance.

Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He has held visiting researcher positions at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, France. He received his PhD from the University of California San Diego.

His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Social Problems, Journal of Common Market Studies, Comparative Politics, Socius, and Social Science Quarterly. It has received attention from outlets such as The Financial Times and Bloomberg as well as external funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, and the Institute of European Studies.

He is currently finishing a book titled Why Carbon Taxes Failed. Outside of academia, he has worked with various think tanks, organizations, and governments.

Selected Publications

Books

In progress. “Why Carbon Taxes Failed”

Articles (Full list available upon request.)

2024. Comparative Green Advantage: Growth Regimes and Public Investment in Renewable Energy R&D. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 62(1): 285-294.

2023. Representation and Displacement: Labor Disembedding and Contested Neoliberalism in France. Comparative Politics 55(3): 377-400. (with Mark Vail & Sara Watson)

2023. Populism and Carbon Tax Justice: The Yellow Vest Movement in France. Social Problems 70(1): 143-163.

2021. Drivers of Carbon Price Adoption in Wealthy Democracies: International or Domestic Forces? Socius 7:1-11.

2020. When Ignoring the News and Going Hiking Can Help You Save the World: Environmental Activist Strategies for Persistence. Sociological Forum 35(1):189–206.

2020. Do Carbon Prices Limit Economic Growth? Socius 6:1-3.

2019. Assessing Sociodemographic Predictors of Climate Change Concern, 1994-2016. Social Science Quarterly 100(5):1699–1708.

2018. Beyond Organizational Ties: Foundations of Persistent Commitment in Environmental Activism. Social Movement Studies 17(6):697–715.