Environmental Economics

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Current Students

Nicholas Burger - Nick's research interests include the environmental implications of international development in Africa. With an interdisciplinary BA from the University of Southern California in Business, Philosophy, and Economics, Nick has a proven capacity for understanding interactions and complexities in the areas of development and the environment. Nick attributes his desire to contribute to economics and environmental welfare on an international level to his experiences living and working in the West African nation of Ghana. Nick interned at the World Bank, Research Division, in the area of environment and infrastructure. Nick's research advisor is Prof. Deacon.

Jerry Brian -  Jerry earned a MS in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from Cornell University, and a double BA in Economics and Philosophy from California State University, Fullerton. In addition to working as a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant at Cornell, Jerry worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was also born and raised.  Jerry received a research grant to write two reports on the economic impact of climate change on timberland and forest ecosystem services in California for the California Energy Commission.

Jonah Busch - Prior to EES, Jonah graduated from Indiana University with majors in Mathematics, Geography, and Environmental Studies and a minor in Economics. He then taught math in Burkina Faso, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. As part of EES's natural science training, he interned with the Santa Barbara County Oak Restoration Project with Professor Frank Davis, surveying oaks at UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve. For the EES policy internship, Jonah worked with Conservation International South Africa, quantifying the economic contribution of nature-based tourism in the incipient Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, spanning Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Jonah researches the economics of conservation and wildlife, focusing on transboundary protected areas and the valuation of environmental amenities and endangered species. 
 
Emmon Chu - Emmon graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa with a BA in Mathematics and Economics.  He enrolled in the Economics Department in 2007 through the EES program and is interested in studying asymmetric information, property rights, and collective action.

Heather Coleman - Heather graduated from UCLA in 2003 with a BS in both Marine Biology and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Environmental Science.  She came to UCSB in 2003 and spent her second year here as an EES Fellow and an Economics MA student, after which she conducted a cost-benefit analysis of Istanbul's restoration of the Golden Horn estuary.  Now, Heather is examining the effects of Santa Barbara’s natural offshore oil seeps on marine populations and communities.  She is translating molecular-scale adaptations and their costs into larger-scale ecological effects, such as growth, reproduction and survival.  Heather hopes to incorporate both ecological and economic research techniques into her future career.

Marc Conte - Following his graduation from Dartmouth in Economics and  Biology, Marc worked for over 2 years in New York City as an analyst in the field of business consulting. Marc has a life-long interest in the sea and has worked on projects studying northern elephant seals in the Eastern Farallon Islands, forest ecosystems in Costa Rica, and the coral reef ecology of Northern Jamaica. Marc's current interest is studying economic and ecological factors which guide decision-making in resource use and species protection. At the EES Program, Marc is modeling oceanic currents for a marine study with Professor Dave Siegel of the Geography Department. Marc's research advisor is Prof. Costello.

Greg DeAngelo - Greg received his BS in Economics and minors in Mathematics and Public Policy Analysis from Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York.  He began the EES program through the Economics Department in 2005, and is funded largely through a prestigious fellowship from the United States Department of Homeland Security.  Through this fellowship, Greg has traveled to Washington D.C. and met with Senator Boxer to discuss homeland security issues.  Greg is currently working in the area of law enforcement and economics.  Specifically, he is interested in optimal enforcement effort, and he has been working on a method that determines the effect of law enforcement on public safety - particularly through the lens of roadway safety.

Zack Donohew - Zack Donohew began his PhD at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management in 2007.  Zack's research interests focus on how property rights regimes affect the allocation of natural resources.  Currently, he is studying water markets in the western United States.  A former Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, Zack recently earned an MESc from Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  He also has a BA from the University of Oklahoma.  In his spare time, Zack enjoys fly-fishing and helping on the family farm in Lone Chimney, Oklahoma.

Christopher Goodwin - Chris is originally from New Zealand, and he came to the EES program in 2007.  He graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelors degree in Forestry Science with First Class Honors.  Chris then attended Virginia Tech where he completed his Masters degree in Forest Economics.  Having now worked in the private sector for a number of years as an environmental program manager and military range planner for the U.S. Army, he has returned to university studies at UCSB.  His research interests currently lie in investigating the economics of environmental certification schemes, as well as the purchase choices of individuals to provide public goods—particularly in forest products, fisheries, and in mitigating climate change.

Corbett Grainger - Corbett earned his MS in Applied Economics at University of Minnesota, where his thesis focused on food choice in school lunch programs.  He has a BA in Economics and German from Concordia College in Minnesota, and he has worked in a national bank developing bond and derivative valuation models.  During his junior year at Concordia, he was awarded a scholarship to study at Technische Universitaet Karlsruhe, Germany, and as part of the EES program, he spent the summer of 2006 as a "Transatlantic Intern" at Ecologic, a European environmental policy think tank in Berlin.  He is currently working on estimating the impact of redistricting on environmental legislation in California.  For his dissertation, he is focusing on the incidence of environmental regulation, with a focus on applications to California climate policy.

Laura Grant - Born and raised in South Dakota, Laura moved to Idaho in 1999 to pursue her BS in Mathematics from Boise State University. She remained there for an MS in Geophysics with a hydrology emphasis. Laura is a Regents Scholar at UCSB. Presently, Laura works with Matthew Kotchen (Professor, UCSB) determining the effect of Daylight Saving Time on Residential Electricity Consumption. Her general interests are time discounting – both theoretically and empirically as it pertains to long-term environmental and resource planning decisions – and inter-/intra-generational equity. Two potential applications are water resource management and climate change mitigation policies. She also assists Idaho Conservation League with an economic development and wilderness proposal for the state of Idaho, traveling to Washington DC fours times in the past years to talk with legislators about her hydrological research in relation to the proposal.

Chris Guo - Chris was born in 1981 and grew up in Richmond, VA. He attended Harvard College as an undergraduate, during which time he completed coursework in the natural sciences, econometrics, natural disasters, and environmental risk. He graduated in 2003 with a degree in economics and moved to New York to work for a large commercial bank with an up and coming investment banking division. Chris also found time after graduating to travel through Hawaii, Europe, Costa Rica, and Mexico studying their coastlines. In 2006 he began his PhD in the EES program with research interests in ecology, energy, and natural resource management.

Allison Huang - Before joining the EES program in 2002, Allison worked as an environmental engineer/consultant doing groundwater and soil remediation. Allison came to the U.S. from Taiwan to study at Lake Forest College, Illinois where she received a BA in Biology. Allison did microbiology research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and then attended Stanford University, where she was awarded both an Engineer Degree and an MS in Environmental Engineering and Science. Allison is specializing in environmental economics and political economy. She is currently studying legislative voting on environmental policy in the context of the California State Assembly and the U.S. Senate. Allison's research advisor is Prof. Deacon.

Grant Jacobsen Grant began his PhD in the EES Program through the Economics Department at UCSB in2005. For his undergraduate studies, Grant attended The College of William and Mary, where he majored in Economics and graduated in 2005. He is interested in studying microfinance and the role of reputation in decision-making. After Grant's first year in the EES program, Grant traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan in the summer of 2006 to work with the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP). Most of his time with NRSP was spent in their rural microfinance division researching the impact of weather shocks on loan repayment. Grant's research advisor is Prof. Kotchen.

John Lynham John is originally from Ireland and graduated from Trinity College, University of Dublin with a BA in Economics. He is currently pursuing both a PhD in Economics and a MA in Marine Ecology. His research focuses on the interactions between the ocean and economic activity with an emphasis on commercial fishing. He is currently working on papers on spatial fishermen behavior under uncertainty, income-targeting and the evolution of a fishery and a study of international sea piracy. John is also interested in behavioral and experimental economics and is working on two related projects on procrastination and commitment mechanisms. His research is funded as part of the Flow, Fish and Fishing project and he has been an invited speaker at the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists in Kyoto and the American Fisheries Society California meeting. John's research advisor is Prof. Costello.

Julian Neira - Originally from Colombia, South America, Julian earned his undergraduate degree in Applied Economics from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota. Prior to EES, Julian spent a semester interning for FINCA International, a microfinance organization in Washington D.C, while studying economic policy at American University. During the summer of his junior year in college, he was a research fellow at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln's Bureau of Business Research, where he participated in projects assessing prospective industries in rural Nebraska and environmental impacts of highway investments. Julian enrolled in the Economics Department in 2007, where he is the current recipient of the Thormalen Fellowship. Julian’s current research interests are broadly in the area of water markets, environmental valuation, and urban planning, particularly as related to developing countries.

Dominic Parker - Dominic Parker began his research as a EES fellow and PhD student at the Bren School in 2005.  His current research focuses on private land conservation, economic development on American Indian reservations, and the economics of public bureaucracies (with a specific interest in those that manage natural resources). Prior to enrolling at UCSB, Parker was a researcher at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. Additionally, he has worked as a consultant for the Public Utilities Board of Singapore (with Terry Anderson) and as a consultant for KPMG LLP in Portland, Oregon. He holds a MS degree in applied economics from Montana State University. Nick's research advisor is Prof. Deacon.
 
Bonnie Queen Bonnie graduated from The College of William and Mary with a BA in Economics.  Bonnie was the recipient of the Robert A. Barry Award in 2005, given to the top economics student.  She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  Bonnie published an honors thesis on the impact of historical areas on housing prices.  She enrolled in the Economics Department in 2007 through the EES program and she is interested in studying environmental and developmental economics.

Mike Springborn - After completing his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Colorado, Michael worked as a financial risk management professional. Mike is working with Professor Chris Costello to understand the linkage between international ocean trade and arrival of invasive species. Additionally, he is pursuing a project with Tom Dunne to develop a mass balance analysis of nutrient and contaminant movement in the Sacramento River floodplain. This is part of a broader effort to understand the environmental and economic effects of past land use decisions as well as critical elements for current water policy in the American west. Mike is interested in how scientific and other information is used in decision making regarding natural resources and ultimately he plans to explore how land management and resource use decisions are related to poverty, particularly in developing countries.

Rebecca Toseland - Originally from Upstate New York, Rebecca graduated from Yale University in May 2007 with a BA in Economics and Environmental Studies.  While at Yale, Rebecca was a Research Assistant at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.  Her Senior Research Project modeled the impacts of environmental regulation on air pollution control in Post-World War II Japan.  Rebecca entered the EES program through the Economics Department in fall 2007.  Her current research interests include water resource management, green markets, and incentives for the provision of corporate social responsibility.

Elizabeth Witham - Elizaeth was born and raised in northwestern Washington State, on the border of the Olympic National Park.  She attended MIT for her undergraduate, and graduated in 2005 with an SB in Environmental Engineering and a minor in Political Science.  After graduation Elizabeth moved to Washington D.C. to work for the Homeland Security Institute, the Department of Homeland Security's think tank.  Presently, she is interested in a wide range of issues in Environmental Economics, including, but not limited to, natural resource economics and questions of climate change.