Economist William Nordhaus Dies at 85
The Yale economist and 2018 Nobel laureate, whose climate-economics model shaped global policy, died at his New Haven home.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Environmental
William D. Nordhaus, a Yale economist and Nobel laureate, died at his home in New Haven at age 85 from glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. He shared the 2018 Nobel in economic science with Paul M. Romer.
Why it matters
The Nobel committee recognized Nordhaus for a method that weighs the long-term damage of climate change against the cost of containing it. His model has underpinned dozens of regulations worldwide aimed at limiting fossil fuels and influenced climate policy across several presidential administrations.
Nordhaus was 85 years old at his death, which followed a diagnosis of glioblastoma, a brain cancer. He shared the 2018 Nobel in economic science with Paul M. Romer, and the source does not detail how his model will be updated by later researchers.
The players
William D. Nordhaus
A Yale economist and Nobel laureate whose climate-economics model shaped global climate policy for decades.
Yale University
The New Haven university where Nordhaus spent his academic career as a professor.
The details
Nordhaus developed his climate-economics model over decades through repeated refinement, balancing the long-term damage of climate change against the economic costs of containing it. The model seeded a new field of research bridging economics and earth science.
Timeline
2018: Nordhaus shares the Nobel in economic science with Paul M. Romer.
October 30, 2026: Nordhaus dies at his home in New Haven.
Big Picture
Nordhaus's 2018 Nobel recognized the integration of climate damage into economic accounting, a framework that now underpins many fossil-fuel regulations. His death closes a career that helped establish that field.
Nordhaus's cost-benefit approach to climate change has shaped how governments weigh carbon regulations, which can affect energy prices and fossil-fuel policy. Readers following climate policy may see the framework he developed referenced in future regulatory decisions.
The takeaway
Nordhaus's work showed that climate policy can be grounded in explicit economic tradeoffs between future damage and present cost. That framing remains a central tool for evaluating how much to spend on limiting emissions today.
Further reading
For more on the climate science and policy frameworks Nordhaus helped build, explore our Environmental coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by The New York Times.
