Daniel Driscoll
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Curriculum Vitae
(144.98 KB)
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 climate governance, economic policy, and financial systems.
Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs and held visiting researcher positions at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, France and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. He earned his PhD from the University of California San Diego.
His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Review of International Political Economy, Socio-Economic Review, Politics & Society, Comparative Politics, and Social Problems. It has received attention from outlets such as The Financial Times, The New York Times, and Bloomberg as well as external funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy.
His first book, Why Carbon Taxes Failed, is now out with Oxford University Press. Outside of academia, he has worked with various think tanks, organizations, and governments.
Selected Publications
Book
2026. Why Carbon Taxes Failed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Articles
2026. The states-markets-decarbonization nexus: reviewing an emerging political economy agenda. Socio-Economic Review 24 (3): 1709-1731. (with Mathias Larsen)
2026. Internationalizing industrial policy: How China and the US use state capacity to secure critical minerals for EVs. Politics & Society 54 (2): 215-246. (with Max Kiefel & Mathias Larsen)
2025. The US dollar and decarbonization: Exploring constraints. Finance and Society 11 (3): 407-420.
2025. Decarbonising national growth models: derisking, ‘hobbled states,’ and the decarbonisation possibility frontier. Review of International Political Economy 32 (3): 617-642. (with Mark Blyth)
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.
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