Please also see my Google Scholar page
Work in progress
"Do working forest easements work for conservation?" (with Jonathan Thompson, Alexey Kalinin, Lucy Lee, Valerie Pasquarella and Joshua Plisinski). Paper submitted for review, August, 2023.
"Scaling forest restoration on private land: causal evidence from Brazil" (with Roberto Toto, Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Bruno Coutinho, Carlos Muñoz Brenes, & Ludmila Pugliese). Paper submitted for review, December 2023.
"Design principles for environmental, economic, and social sustainability in land conservation" (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia). Proposal, August 2023.
Publications
"Economic development and conservation impacts of China's Nature Reserves" (with Audrey Cheng and Yuanyuan Yi). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol 121, 2023, 102848. Journal version here.
"Towards Equity in Land Protection." Forthcoming in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review; developed for keynote address, NAREA Special workshop on "Ecosystem Services Foundations for Resilient Communities," June 2022. Available online, June 2023.
"Does land conservation raise property taxes? Evidence from New England cities and towns" (with Alexey Kalinin, Spencer Meyer and Jonathan Thompson). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 119, May 2023, 102782.
--> Two-page policy summary is here.
"Environmental justice criteria for new land protection can inform efforts to address disparities in access to nearby open space" (with Lucy Lee, Neenah Estrella-Luna, Margot Lurie and Jonathan Thompson). Environmental Research Letters, 2022. The webmap associated with this work can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/EJ-OS-NE.
--> This work highlighted as part of next steps towards land justice in the New England Conservation Community and in this WGBH story.
"Better to be indirect? Testing the accuracy and cost-savings of indirect surveys" (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia and Laura Costica). World Development. 142 (2021) 105419.
"Using cultural heritage sites in Mexico to understand the poverty alleviation impacts of protected areas" (with Paulo Quadri Barba and Adam Millard Ball). Conservation Science and Practice. 2021; e339.
"Using referenda to improve targeting and decrease costs of environmental conditional cash transfers" (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia and Daniel Phaneuf). Journal of Public Economics, 176: p. 179-194, 2019. Accepted Version
"Reductions in Deforestation and Poverty From Decentralized Forest Management in Nepal" (with Johan Oldekop, Birendra Karna, Arun Agrawal, and Mark Whittingham). Nature Sustainability, 2, 421-428.
-->Video about this research. Stories in Kathmandu Post , Sustainabilty Times
"Assessing the Local Economic Impacts of Land Protection" (with Jonathan R. Thompson, Spencer R. Meyer, Christoph Nolte, and Joshua Plisinski) Conservation Biology, 2019, 33:5, p.1035-1044. (Accepted manuscript)
--> Article in The Conversation ; New England Public Radio: Communities Across New England Get Economic Boost; Amherst News: Protecting The Land Grows Jobs
“Voluntary, permanent land protection reduces forest loss and development in a rural-urban landscape.” (with Christoph Nolte, Spencer R. Meyer, and Jonathan R. Thompson. Conservation Letters.
"Waste Not: Can Biogas Deliver Sustainable Development?" Environmental and Resource Economics, 72:3, 2019 (with Hope Thompson and Robyn Meeks). (Accepted version)
--> Policy brief. Policy brief in Nepali.
"Can Environmental Cash Transfers Reduce Deforestation and Improve Social Outcomes? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Mexico’s National Program (2011-2014)." (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Victor Hugo Orozco-Olvera, Laura Costica, Jorge David Fernandez Medina, Sofia Romo Monroy, Stefano Pagiola) World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 8707, January 2019.
--> DIME Policy Brief on this work
--> Full report to CONAFOR-CONEVAL-SEMARNAT
"Payments for environmental services supported social capital while increasing land management." Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol 115: No. 27, July 3, 2018 (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Victor Hugo Orozco Olvera, Laura Costica, Jorge David Fernandez Medina and Sofía Romo Monroy).
--> Listen at The Academic Minute ; Mongabay Story: Payments for Ecosystem Services Can Boost Social Capital in Addition to Forest Management ; Amherst College Story: When You Pay Communities to Conserve, Social Bonds Reap the Rewards ; World Bank's PROFOR Story: In Mexico, payments for ecosystem services benefit forests and communities
"An Upside to Globalization: International Outmigration Drives Reforestation in Nepal." (with Johan Oldekop, Arun Agrawal and Mark Whittingham). Global Environmental Change, Volume 52, September 2018, Pages 66–74.
-->Story by SciDev "Outmigration leads to reforestation in Nepal"
"National and Sub-National Forest Conservation Policies: What Works? What Doesn't." Chapter 9 in Transforming REDD+: Lessons and New Directions (with Jan Börner, Thales West, Allen Blackman, Daniela A Miteva, and Sven Wunder). Center for International Forestry Research, 2018.
“Payments for Ecosystem Services in Mexico Reduce Forest Fragmentation.” (with Carlos Ramirez-Reyes, Volker C. Radeloff, and Peter Potapov). Ecological Applications, Volume 28: Issue 8, 2018, pp. 1982-1997.
"Economics of Habitat Fragmentation: A Review and Critique of the Literature" (with H. Jo Albers and Katie D. Lee) International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, Vol 11: No. 2, pp. 97-144, 2018. Journal version here.
"Parks versus PES: Evaluating Direct and Incentive-Based Land Conservation in Mexico." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 86: 8-28, 2017 (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia). Online from JEEM here.
--> Blog by CIFOR here and here in Spanish
"Only One Tree From Each Seed? Environmental Effectiveness and Poverty Alleviation in Mexico's Payments for Ecosystem Services Program" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 7(4): 1-40, 2015 (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia and Patricia Yanez-Pagans). (AEJ published version here)
"Estimating the Impacts of Conservation on Ecosystem Services by Integrating Modeling and Evaluation" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(24): 7420–7425, 2015 (with Paul Ferraro, Merlin Hanauer, Daniela Miteva, Joanna Nelson, Subhrendu Pattanayak, and Christoph Nolte)
"Disruption, Achievement, and the Heterogeneous Benefits of Smaller Classes" Empirical Economics. 48:1267-1286, 2015 (with Graham McKee and Steven Rivkin).
"Improving Environmental and Social Targeting through Adaptive Management in Mexico’s Payments for Hydrological Services Program." Conservation Biology, 28(5): 1151-1159, 2014 (with J. Alix-Garcia, E. Shapiro-Garza, L. Fine, V. Radeloff, G. Aronson, S. Castillo, C. Ramirez-Reyes and P. Yanez-Pagans).
"Do Protected Areas Reduce Forest Fragmentation? A Microlandscapes Approach", Environmental and Resource Economics. 58(2): 303-33, 2014
"The Ecological Footprint of Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from Mexico's Oportunidades Program." The Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(2) 417-435, 2013 (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Craig McIntosh, and Jarrod Welch).
"More Strictly Protected Areas Are Not Necessarily More Protective: Evidence from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Thailand." Environmental Research Letters, 8(2), 2013 (with Paul Ferraro, Merlin Hanauer, Daniela Miteva, Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, and Subhrendu Pattanayak).
"Forest Conservation and Slippage: Evidence from Mexico's National Payments for Ecosystem Services Program." Land Economics, 88(4): 613-638, 2012 (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia and Elizabeth Shapiro).
"Conditions Associated with Protected Area Success in Conservation and Poverty Reduction." Procedings of the National Academies of Sciences, 108(34): 13913-13918, 2011 (with Paul Ferraro and Merlin Hanauer).
“Conservation and Development: Evidence from Thai Protected Areas.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 60: 94-114, 2010.
"Protected Areas Reduced Poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand" Procedings of the National Academies of Sciences, 107: 22, 2010 (with Paul Ferraro, Kwaw Andam, Andrew Healy and Margaret Holland).
“Local regulation and land use change: The effects of wetlands bylaws in Massachusetts” Regional Science and Urban Economics, 39: 409-421, 2009 (with Jenny Schuetz).
“Designing Payments for Ecosystem Services: Lessons from Previous Experience with Incentive-based Mechanisms” Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, 105: 28, 2008 (with Kelsey Jack and Carolyn Kousky).
Collaborative Reports / Policy Briefs
“Evaluation of CONAFOR’s Payments for Hydrological Services Program, 2003-2010.” (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Glen Aronson, Volker Radeloff, Carlos Ramirez-Reyes, Elizabeth Shapiro, and Patricia Yanez-Pagans). Policy report for the Mexican National Forestry Commission, November, 2012.
"Towards a Science of Sustainability" NSF conference report.
"Impacts of Payments for Ecosystem Services on Deforestation in Mexico: Preliminary Lessons for REDD" (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia and Elizabeth Shapiro) Land Tenure Center Brief No. 11, University of Wisconsin, September, 2010. English and Spanish Versions.
Grants / Collaborative Projects
"Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of the Economic and Ecological Impacts of Land Protection" (with Jonathan Thompson, Valerie Pasquarella)
"Economic Impacts of Land Protection in New England" (with Jonathan Thompson, Spencer Meyer)
"Balancing Land Conservation and Development in the Long Term." Andrew Carnegie Fellowship 2016-2019.
"Evaluating Mexico's Payments for Ecosystem Services Scheme: Social Capital and Long Term Impacts" (with Jennifer Alix-Garcia, Victor Orozco and CONAFOR).
“Social and Environmental Impacts of Biogas Adoption in Nepal” (with Robyn Meeks and Hope Thompson)
“Forest User Groups and Forest Cover Change in Nepal” (with Johan Oldekop, Arun Agrawal, and Mark Whittingham).
“Payments for Environmental Services in Mexico: Understanding the Effectiveness of an Innovative Conservation Mechanism” (with Elizabeth Shapiro, Jennifer Alix-Garcia, and Volker Radeloff). Funding from the International Iniative for Impact Evaluation (3ie): 2010-2013.
"Spillovers in Incentive-Based Conservation Programs." Funding from the National Science Foundation Economics Program: 2011-2015
"Environmental Leadership in the 21st Century" (with Jan Dizard, Ted Melillo, Sarah Barr) Funding from the Thoreau Foundation.