[1] He taught in the fields of public economics and environmental economics, and was considered a major international figure in both fields.
[1] His first book was Fiscal Federalism (1972) and he authored numerous other books and articles, including The Theory of Environmental Policy (1975), coauthored with William J. Baumol.
A Festschrift, Environmental and public economics : essays in honor of Wallace E. Oates, was published in his honor in 1999,[2] and an additional volume of his selected essays in 2004.
[3] Another Festschrift, The Tiebout Model at fifty : essays in public economics in honor of Wallace Oates was published in his honor in 2006.
[4] He received his Ph.D. in economics at Stanford in 1965 and joined the faculty at Princeton University.