Ryan Thombs
- Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology
- Social Science Research Institute Co-funded Faculty Member
University Park, PA 16802
- Email rmt5827@psu.edu
- PDF Curriculum Vitae
- Pronouns He/Him
- Name Pronunciation Ryan Thombs (Ryan Toomz)
Areas of Expertise
- Climate Change
- Environmental Health
- Social Dimensions of Energy
- Political Economy
- Quantitative Methods
Websites
Education
- PhD, Boston College, 2023
- MPP, George Washington University, 2017
- BA, Otterbein University, 2015
Research Interests
My research focuses on the political economy of the climate crisis, its impacts on health and well-being, and how social inequality affects population health outcomes using advanced statistical methods. Currently, I am working on three projects. The first explores the effects of fossil fuel sector decline on a range of environmental and population health measures such as emissions, air pollution, mental health, mortality, and economic well-being sub-nationally in the U.S. The second analyzes the anthropogenic drivers of greenhouse gas emissions focusing on the relationship between militarization and emissions and evaluating the mitigation effectiveness of current climate policies. My last project is focused on developing new approaches and software packages for panel, time series, and spatial modeling.
My published research appears in leading sociology journals such as the American Sociological Review, Sociological Methodology, Social Problems, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Socius, and various high impact interdisciplinary journals, including Global Environmental Change, Energy Research & Social Science, Climatic Change, PLOS Climate, and Environmental Research Letters.
All of my Stata programs can be downloaded from my Github page.
Publications
Impact of boom-and-bust economies from oil and gas development on psychiatric hospitalizations among Medicaid beneficiaries
Environmental Research: Health, Willis, Mary, Cesare, Nina, Harleman, Max, Black-Ingersoll, Flannery, Gradus, Jaimie, Thombs, Ryan, Buonocore, Jonathan, Casey, Joan, Braun, Danielle, Dominici, Francesca, Nori-Sarma, Amruta, 2025
Do industrial decarbonization policies deliver? A global assessment of policy effectiveness across 150 nations, 1990-2020
Environmental Research Letters, Thombs, Ryan P., Zhang, Weimin, Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2025
Reducing U.S. military spending could lead to substantial decreases in energy consumption
PLOS Climate, Thombs, Ryan, Jorgenson, Andrew, Clark, Brett, 2025
Inequality is driving the climate crisis: A longitudinal analysis of province-level carbon emissions in Canada, 1997–2020
Energy Research and Social Science, Jorgenson, Andrew, Goh, Taekyeong, Thombs, Ryan, Koop-Monteiro, Yasmin, Shakespear, Mark, Gletsu, Grace, Viens, Nicolas, 2025
Militarizing the Climate Crisis: An Analysis of the Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Militarization on Nations’ Carbon Emissions, 1990-2020.
Social Problems, Jorgenson, Andrew, Clark, Brett, Thombs, Ryan, Kentor, Jeffrey, Goh, Taekyeong, Giedraitis, Vincentas, 2025
Does International Trade Drive CO2 Emissions at the U.S. State-Level?
Social Problems, Thombs, Ryan, 2025
Does renewable energy production displace fossil fuel production in the U.S.? A panel data study of fossil fuel–producing U.S. states, 1997–2020
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Thombs, Ryan P., 2025
Advances in research on anthropogenic drivers of climate change, Jorgenson, Andrew, El Tinay, Hassan, Fitzgerald, Jared, Givens, Jennifer, Goh, Taekyeong, Huang, Xiaorui, Kelly, Orla, Rieger, Annika, Thombs, Ryan P., 2024
lreff - Compute long-run effects after estimating a dynamic model, Thombs, Ryan, 2024
lrplot - plot effects after estimating an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, Thombs, Ryan, 2024
Economic Growth and Income Inequality Increase the Carbon Intensity of Human Well-Being for Canada’s Provinces
npj Climate Action, Jorgenson, Andrew, Goh, Taekyeong, Thombs, Ryan, Koop-Monteiro, Yasmin, Shakespear, Mark, Viens, Nicolas, Gletsu, Grace, 2024
Review of Environmental Econometrics Using Stata, by Christopher F. Baum and Stan Hurn
Stata Journal, Thombs, Ryan P., 2023
Guns versus Climate: How Militarization Amplifies the Effect of Economic Growth on Carbon Emissions
American Sociological Review, Jorgenson, Andrew K., Clark, Brett, Thombs, Ryan P., Kentor, Jeffrey, Givens, Jennifer E., Huang, Xiaorui, El Tinay, Hassan, Auerbach, Daniel, Mahutga, Matthew C., 2023
The asymmetric effects of fossil fuel dependency on the carbon intensity of well-being: A U.S. state-level analysis, 1999–2017
Global Environmental Change, Thombs, Ryan P., 2022
What Goes Up Might Not Come Down: Modeling Directional Asymmetry with Large-N, Large-T Data
Sociological Methodology, Thombs, Ryan P., Huang, Xiaorui, Fitzgerald, Jared Berry, 2022
xtasysum - Generate, summarize, and visualize partial sums for modeling asymmetry with panel data., Thombs, Ryan, 2022
A Guide to Analyzing Large N, Large T Panel Data
Socius, Thombs, Ryan P., 2022
Trade and health: A cross-national study of global economic integration, smoking prevalence, and gender, 2000 to 2015
Sociology of Development, Thombs, Ryan P., Thombs, Dennis L., Mahoney, Colleen A., 2021
Inequality amplifies the negative association between life expectancy and air pollution: A cross-national longitudinal study
Science of the Total Environment, Jorgenson, Andrew K., Thombs, Ryan P., Clark, Brett, Givens, Jennifer E., Hill, Terrence D., Huang, Xiaorui, Kelly, Orla M., Fitzgerald, Jared B., 2021
It's about time: How recent advances in time series analysis techniques can enhance energy and climate research
Energy Research and Social Science, Thombs, Ryan P., Huang, Xiaorui, Jorgenson, Andrew K., 2021
eiwb - Generate a variable for the ecological intensity of well-being., Thombs, Ryan, 2021
In-and-Beyond State Power: How Political Equality Moderates the Economic Growth-CO2 Emissions Relationship, 1990-2014
Sociological Quarterly, Thombs, Ryan P., 2021
The Unsustainable State: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Inequality, and Human Well-Being in the United States, 1913 to 2017
Socius, Kelly, Orla, Thombs, Ryan P., Jorgenson, Andrew, 2021
The multiplicative impacts of working hours and fine particulate matter concentration on life expectancy: A longitudinal analysis of US States
Environmental Research, Jorgenson, Andrew K., Fitzgerald, Jared B., Thombs, Ryan P., Hill, Terrence D., Givens, Jennifer E., Clark, Brett, Schor, Juliet B., Huang, Xiaorui, Kelly, Orla M., Ore, Peter, 2020
What Is Driving the Drug Overdose Epidemic in the United States?
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Thombs, Ryan P., Thombs, Dennis L., Jorgenson, Andrew K., Braswell, Taylor Harris, 2020
The political economy of renewable portfolio standards in the United States
Energy Research and Social Science, Thombs, Ryan P., Jorgenson, Andrew K., 2020
Power, proximity, and physiology: Does income inequality and racial composition amplify the impacts of air pollution on life expectancy in the United States?
Environmental Research Letters, Jorgenson, Andrew K., Hill, Terrence D., Clark, Brett, Thombs, Ryan P., Ore, Peter, Balistreri, Kelly S., Givens, Jennifer E., 2020
What Is Driving the Drug Overdose Epidemic in the United States?
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Thombs, Ryan P., Thombs, Dennis L., Jorgenson, Andrew K., Harris Braswell, Taylor, 2020
Uneven decoupling: The economic growth-CO2 emissions relationship in the global north, 1870 to 2014
Sociology of Development, Thombs, Ryan P., Huang, Xiaorui, 2019
When democracy meets energy transitions: A typology of social power and energy system scale
Energy Research and Social Science, Thombs, Ryan P., 2019
Manufacturing the Urban Rift: Manufacturing as a Moderator of the Urbanization-CO2 Emissions Relationship, 2000-2013
Human Ecology Review, Thombs, Ryan, Jorgenson, Andrew, 2019
Manufacturing the urban rift: Manufacturing as a moderator of the urbanization–CO2 emissions relationship, 2000–2013
Human Ecology Review, Thombs, Ryan, Jorgenson, Andrew, 2019
Ohio LEED schools and academic performance: A panel study, 2006-2016
Sustainability, Thombs, Ryan P., Prindle, Allen, 2018
Has the relationship between non-fossil fuel energy sources and CO2 emissions changed over time? A cross-national study, 2000–2013
Climatic Change, Thombs, Ryan P., 2018
The Transnational Tilt of the Treadmill and the Role of Trade Openness on Carbon Emissions: A Comparative International Study, 1965–2010
Sociological Forum, Thombs, Ryan, 2018
The Paradoxical Relationship Between Renewable Energy and Economic Growth: A Cross-National Panel Study, 1990-2013
Journal of World-Systems Research, Thombs, Ryan, 2017
