Michael Greenstone is an American economist and the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, the College, and the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

They found that the legislation was effective in reducing TSP air pollution and, based on an elasticity of housing values with regard to TSP concentration ranging from -0.20 to -0.35, that the improvements in air quality between 1970 and 1980 attributable to the regulations imposed under the non-attainment designation caused an increase of housing values in non-attainment counties worth $45 billion.

[20] However, Greenstone also found that the Clean Air Act's non-attainment designation probably played only a minor role in the 80% reduction of sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations in the United States, possibly because regulators assigned the SO2 non-attainment designation to many counties that hadn't even exceeded SO2 ceilings for a single day and consequently didn't impose excessively strict regulatory oversight.

[21] Finally, Greenstone also analysed the impact of the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments on industrial activity in the U.S. and found that pollution-intensive in "non-attainment" counties lost ca.

[25] In another collaboration, Greenstone and Deschênes study the relationship between climate change and mortality and its mitigation through adaptation, and estimate that under "business-as-usual" scenarios climate change will increase the age-adjusted mortality rate in the U.S. by 3% by the end of the 21st century, though this effect may be strongly mitigated through populations adapting to the expected increase in the frequency of extreme temperature days.

[28] In environmental economics as well as in other areas, Greenstone has strongly advocated for the greater application of (quasi-)experimental methods to identify which policies are effective and efficient in terms of increasing social welfare.

They find that the announcement of compliance with disclosure requirements by those OTC firms most likely to be affected by the change in regulation was accompanied by abnormal excess stock returns of ca.

3.5% in the weeks surrounding the announcement and that expectations regarding the extension of regulations resulted in abnormal excess returns ranging from 11.5 to 22.1% in the period between legislative proposal and enforcement, suggesting large-scale insider trading at OTC firms.

His current work involves testing innovative ways that aim to increase developing countries' energy access and improve the efficiency of environmental regulations across the world.