Edward Cunningham

Edward Cunningham is an Assistant Professor at Boston University’s Geography and Environment & Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. His research focuses on the political economy of development and, more specifically, comparative energy governance. He employs surveys and qualitative case studies to examine the relationship between political structure and industrial structure, and the strategies states and firms adopt to manage risk in economic development. His current work assesses the impact of governance decentralization on the environmental sustainability and productivity of energy markets, particularly in China and Indonesia.

Previously, he was an Ash Center Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) Industrial Performance Center, and a consultant to public and private sector organizations. Dr. Cunningham graduated from Georgetown University, received an A.M. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at M.I.T. He was selected as a Fulbright Fellow to the PRC, during which time he conducted his doctoral fieldwork as a visiting fellow at Tsinghua University. His primary research interests relate to energy markets, comparative political economy, industrial organization and competitiveness, and public policy. He is fluent in Mandarin and Italian.

Dr. Cunningham is the author or a contributing author of: Global Taiwan (M.E. Sharpe, 2005); “China’s Energy Governance: Perception and Reality”, Audits of Conventional Wisdom Series (M.I.T. Center for International Studies, 2007); “China and East Asian Energy: Prospects and Issues”, Australia-Japan Research Centre (ANU, 2008); “Why Pollute? Explaining the Environmental Performance of Chinese Power Plants”, China Economic Quarterly (September 2008); “Greener Plants, Grayer Skies? A Report from the Front Lines of China’s Energy Sector”, Energy Policy vol. 37:5 (May 2009); and “Fueling the Miracle: China’s Energy Governance and Reform”, in Joseph Fewsmith (ed.) China Today, China Tomorrow: Domestic Politics, Economy, and Society, Rowman and Littlefield, (July 2010). He is currently completing a book on China’s energy markets and energy governance during the modern reform period.

Additional Information:

• Edward Cunningham’s homepage

Select Publications:

• “Greener Plants, Grayer Skies? A report from the front lines of China’s energy sector” Energy Policy, 2009, vol. 37, issue 5, pages 1809-1824 [with Edward Steinfeld and Richard Lester]
• “Chinas Energy Governance: Perception and Reality”

Other work

• Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, hearing on “China’s Energy Policies and their Environmental Impacts” (August, 2008)