Recent work uses mean-variance portfolio theory to identify optimal spatial conservation planning in the face of spatial variation in future benefits from uncertainty in climate change. Use of variance to measure risk may lead to inefficient portfolio allocation decisions when returns do not...

The dominant paradigm of conservation-reserve planning in economics is to optimize the provision of physical conservation benefits given a budget constraint, implicitly assuming the value of biodiversity and ecosystem function is not affected by human proximity to that natural capital. There is...

The dominant paradigm of conservation-reserve planning in economics is to optimize the provision of physical conservation benefits (measured in units like species protected) given a budget constraint. Large-scale biology-based priority setting implies that the value we place on biodiversity and...

Policy intervention in the biofuel market has led to a significant increase in biofuel production and use in the past several years. However, the welfare effect of biofuelpolicies, specifically the ethanol tax credit for corn ethanol, ethanol import tariff andrenewable fuel standard (RFS)...

This dissertation examines three themes of efficiency in fisheries economics and management.The first theme is intertemporal efficiency; by examining fishery managementproblems within a stochastic bioeconomic model, the tradeoffs between current and futureconsumption are clear. The second theme...

Biofuels have been promoted to achieve energy security and as a solution to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. This dissertation presents a framework to examine the extent to which biofuel policies reduce gasoline consumption and GHG emissions and their...

Private land trusts protect much land in the U.S., but private groups may fail to coordinate conservation decisions with other conservation agents. Furthermore, it is difficult for public agencies to make optimal reserve-site selections without knowing how these public reserves might influence...

Environmental economists have shown that tradable emission permit markets can reduce the costs to society of pollution reduction. However, when emissions are difficult to monitor and verify, offset credits from pollution reductions may be subject to price discounts that reduce social welfare. In...