Peter Levin’s Rethinking Markets

Maligne Lake
Academic Identity

I am assistant professor of Sociology at Barnard College. My book (and my dissertation research) is a comparative study of technology and futures trading, an ethnography of open outcry and electronic traders. My current research is on how art specialists price cultural commodities, particularly how categories and commensuration work in the secondary/resale fine arts market. I teach courses in economic sociology, organizations, and gender.

Professional Identity

I occasionally consult, focusing on organizational change, the future of technology and financial markets, and environmental markets. I do strategic assessments of markets, technology and organizational design, with qualitative and quantitative components. If you are interested, please email me.

Personal Identity

I grew up outside Chicago, and went to school(s) at Wesleyan University, USC, and Northwestern University. I currently live in New York, with a partner who is a marketing manager for an educational nonprofit. I love movies, like to cook, and I can do a mean lindy swing out. I am INTP.

May 5, 2007

EPA’s Title IV, 2007 results

Filed under: Daily — Peter @ 9:04 am

The results of the 2007 annual EPA auction are in, with the spot allowance for a ton of SO2 coming in at $433.25. Kudos to the Washington College Student Environmental Alliance, who paid a whopping $1120 for their 1 allowance! Costly way to take a ton out of the environment - common, but is it useful? quaint? symbolically important? Santee Cooper (under the name South Carolina Public Service Authority) bought 15,000 tons. And Morgan Stanley bought 50,000 tons, 40% of the total allowances available this year. They bought 50% of the available allowances last year too - they have obviously been moving into this field.

Other interesting results: there were only 14 winners, and only 17 total bidders - this is pretty small compared to previous years. The winners are really in four categories: 1) power producers; 2) energy traders; 3) environmental or educational groups; and 4) non-energy institutional traders (like Morgan Stanley).

Complete results are at the EPA website. While you’re there, take a look at the 1999 results, where Wendy Espeland and I bought a ton of sulfur dioxide. Wanna guess which one is our shell operation?

Leave a Reply

Comments will be sent to the moderation queue.

Documents, Links, and Hijinks

CV, Resume, or what I do in a nutshell

CV - academic (.pdf)
Resume - Professional (.pdf)

Volunteer or give, it will make you feel better


DonorsChoose.org. This is where my partner works. It is an educational nonprofit devoted to obtaining resources for underfunded public schools.
VolunteerMatch. VM is a first stop for volunteering. You can plug in your interests, your zip code, and it will return things to do for a week, a week, or a lifetime.
Idealist.org. More than a place to volunteer, Idealist is probably the number one place my students go for career work. It is a kind of warehouse for nonprofit jobs, internships, volunteering, and the like.
Kaboom! Kaboom builds playgrounds in areas where they are needed and supported by the community. You can participate in a one-day build (though the interface kinda stinks), and they could use your money as well.
Partners in Health. This organization is just making the world better and healthier by attending to HIV and tuberculosis patients in the most impoverished places in the world. More here.

This site is hand-woven, and heavily borrows from the wonderful blueprint framwork. Rock on, grids!

Not quite Valid HTML 4.01 Strict, but getting there..