Profile

Professor S. Niggol Seo, also known as Gaden Je, is a natural resource economist who specializes in the study of global warming and globally shared goods. He received a Ph.D. degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from Yale University in May 2006 with a dissertation on microbehavioral models of global warming. Born in a remote rural village in South Korea (likely the poorest village in the world then) in the lunar month of February in 1972, he was invited for a doctoral study at UC Berkeley, University of Oxford, and Yale University. At Yale University, he learned from Professors Robert Mendelsohn and William Nordhaus (awarded Nobel Prize in 2018) on the economics of global warming. Since 2003, he has worked on various World Bank projects on climate change in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. He held Professor positions in the UK, Spain, Australia, and India from 2006 to 2015.

Prof. Seo has published sixteen books as well as over a hundred peer reviewed articles. Among the academic honors he has received are a Chancellor’s Honor for the best university graduate from Seoul National University and a full scholarship and stipend support from Yale University for a Ph.D. degree program. He received an Outstanding Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy Article Award from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) in Pittsburgh in June 2011. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Handbook of Behavioral Economics and Climate Change published in 2022. 

He founded Lamajel Ling on the winter solstice of 2022 with Jelden Par (a publication company) in January 2025 and Jelden (a Buddhist education and research institution) in January 2026 both registered in the ROK.  On December 1, 2023, Prof. S. Niggol Seo revealed that, in his own words, "I am Lama Tsongkhapa reborn after six hundred years of utter peace." He revealed this through the four books published internationally, referred to as the Four Ornaments to Je Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo. In February 2026, he published a 400-page personal biography entitled "Illuminating I am Lama Tsongkhapa Reborn after Six Hundred Years: Mula-Kaewa-Karika," offering a comprehensive exposition of his unimaginable rebirth. 

For further information, read them at Lamajel Ling or its Youtube channel. 

Dual Treatises of Rebirth

[16] Seo SN (Feb 2026) Illuminating I am Lama Tsongkhapa Reborn after Six Hundred Years: Mula-Kaewa-Karika. Buyeo, ROK: Jelden Par. 

Four Ornaments to Je Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo

[15] Seo SN (May 2025) Elucidating the Sustainable Political Economy of Buddhist Nations. Buyeo, ROK: Jelden Par.

[Read it from the National Library of Korea]

[14] Seo SN (2024c) The Economics of Singularities of Science Elucidated with Buddhist Thoughts. Palgrave MacMillan, Cham, CH. (@SpringerNatureLink) [Read it from Kudos]

[13] Seo SN (2024b) Protecting Nature with Buddha's Wisdom: A Contribution to Environmental and Nature Studies. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. (@ElgarOnline) [Read it from Kudos]

[12] Seo SN (2024a) Buddha, Wisdom and Economics: A Contribution to the Art of Happiness. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. (@Elgar Online) [Read it from Kudos]

Books Published

[11] Seo SN (2023) The Economics of Optimal Growth Pathways: Evaluating the Health of the Planet's Natural and Ecological Resources. Palgrave MacMillan, London, UK. (@Amazon)

[10] Seo SN (ed.) (2022) Handbook of Behavioral Economics and Climate Change. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. (@Barnes&Noble)

[9] Seo SN (2022) The Economics of Pandemics: Exploring Globally Shared Experiences. Palgrave MacMillan, London, UK (Springer Nature). (@Amazon)

[8] Seo SN (2021) Climate Change and Economics: Engaging with Future Generations with Action Plans. Palgrave MacMillan, London, UK (Springer Nature). (@Barnes&Noble)

[7] Seo SN (2020) The Economics of Globally Shared and Public Goods. Academic Press (Elsevier). (@Barnes&Noble).

[6] Seo SN (2019) The Economics of Global Allocations of the Green Climate Fund: An Assessment from Four Scientific Traditions of Modeling Adaptation Strategies. Springer Nature. (@Amazon)

[5] Seo SN (2018) Natural and Man-made Catastrophes: Theories, Economics, and Policy Designs. Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons. (Published on 12 October, 2018) (@Wiley Library, @Amazon)

[4] Seo SN (2017) The Behavioral Economics of Climate Change: Adaptation Behaviors, Global Public Goods, Breakthrough Technologies, and Policy-Making. Academic Press, Elsevier. (@Amazon)

[3] Seo SN (2016) Microbehavioral Econometric Methods: Theories, Models, and Applications for the Study of Environmental and Natural Resources. Academic Press, Elsevier. (@Barnes&Noble)

[2] Seo SN (2015) Micro-Behavioral Economics of Global Warming: Modeling Adaptation Strategies in Agricultural and Natural Resource Enterprises. Springer. (@Amazon)

[1] Seo SN (2006) Modeling Farmer Responses to Climate Change: Measuring Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations in Livestock Management in Africa. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, New Haven, CT.  

 Journal Articles (Selected)

A complete list of publications is available at ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2719-8315).

[1] Seo SN, Mendelsohn R. (2008) Measuring impacts and adaptations to climate change: a structural Ricardian model of African livestock management. Agricultural Economics 38 (2): 151-165. [published by the International Association of Agricultural Economics]

[2] Seo SN (2010) A microeconometric analysis of adapting portfolios to climate change: adoption of agricultural systems in Latin America. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 32: 489-514. [published by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association]

[3] Seo SN (2010) Managing forests, livestock, and crops under global warming: a micro-econometric analysis of land use in Africa. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 54: 239-258. [published by the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society]

[4] Seo SN (2011) An analysis of public adaptation to climate change using agricultural water schemes in South America. Ecological Economics 70: 825-834. [published by the Internatonal Association of Ecologial Economists]

[5] Seo SN (2012) Decision making under climate risks: an analysis of sub-Saharan farmers' adaptation behaviors. Weather, Climate, and Society 4: 285-299. (published by the American Meteorological Society)

[6] Seo SN (2012) What eludes international agreements on climate change? The economics of global public goods. Economic Affairs 32 (2): 74-80. (published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, London)

[7] Seo SN (2014) Evaluation of Agro-Ecological Zone methods for the study of climate change with micro farming decisions in sub-Saharan Africa. European Journal of Agronomy 52:157- 165. [published by the European Society for Agronomy]  

[8] Seo SN (2015) Fatalities of neglect: adapt to more intense hurricanes? International Journal of Climatology 35: 3505-3514. (published by the Royal Meteorological Society) 

[9] Seo SN (2016) The micro-behavioral framework for estimating total damage of global warming on natural resource enterprises with full adaptations. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics 21: 328-347. [published jointly by the International Biometric Society and the American Statistical Association] 

[10] Seo SN (2016) Modeling farmer adaptations to climate change in South America: A micro-behavioral economic perspective. Environmental and Ecological Statistics 23: 1-21.

[11] Seo SN (2017) Measuring policy benefits of the cyclone shelter program in the North Indian Ocean: Protection from intense winds or high storm surges? Climate Change Economics 8: 1-18.