L a l a X. M a
Welcome to my website!
I am an Associate Professor of Economics and the Carl F. Pollard Endowed Professor of Health Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. I am also a University Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). I received my Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University in 2014.
My primary research area lies in the field of environmental economics, with a focus on non-market valuation. I combine economic modeling with data to estimate the value of environmental services as an input into policy. My work can be broadly categorized into three areas: valuation as revealed through housing markets (or “sorting” and “hedonic valuation”), valuation using direct impacts on health or environmental outcomes, and distributional and equity issues related to pollution exposure (broadly known as “environmental justice”).
Contact Information
University of Kentucky
Department of Economics
Gatton College of Business & Economics
Lexington, KY 40506
Phone: (859) 257-2776
E-mail: lala dot ma at uky dot edu
Academic Appointments
2023 - present Carl F. Pollard Professor of Health Economics, University of Kentucky.
2022 - present Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Kentucky.
2014 – 2022 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Kentucky.
Other Appointments
2023 - present University Fellow, Resources for the Future
2023 - present Member, Environmental Defense Fund, Economic Advisory Council
2021 - 2024 Member, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Science Advisory Board, Economic Analysis Committee
2019 – 2020 Faculty Fellow, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency & Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
Editorial Positions
2024 - present Editorial Council, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
2021 - present Editorial Council, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Education
2014 Ph.D. Economics, Duke University, Durham, NC
2007 B.A. / M.A. Economics, B.A. Mathematics, Tufts University, Medford, MA
Primary Research Fields
Non-Market Valuation, Environmental Economics
Publications and Working Papers
Publications
"Race and Concern for the Environment" with Ranie Lin and Toan Phan. (2024). Forthcoming at Land Economics.
"Cumulative Impacts in Environmental Justice: Insights from Economics and Policy" with Laura Bakkensen, Lucija Muehlenbachs, and Lina Benitez. (2024). Regional Science and Urban Economics. (Special issue: Urban Economics and the Environment, Eds. Freeman, Li, and Kahn)
"Risk Disclosure and Home Prices: Evidence from California Wildfire Hazard Zones" with Margaret Walls, Matt Wibbenmeyer, and Connor Lennon (2023). Land Economics. Vol. 99(4). (Special issue: Property Value Analysis Using ZTRAX, Eds. Phaneuf, Zabel, and Krause)
Featured on Resources Radio (weekly podcast by RFF)
"Racial Gaps in Federal Flood Buyout Compensations" with Kay Jowers and Chris Timmins. (2023). AEA Papers and Proceedings. Vol. 113: 451-455.
"The (Alleged) Environmental and Social Benefits of Dynamic Pricing" with Matthew Harding, Kyle Kettler, and Carlos Lamarche. (2023). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Vol. 205: 574-593.
"Drinking Water, Fracking, and Infant Health" with Elaine Hill. (2022). Journal of Health Economics. Vol. 82.
"The Fracking Concern with Water Quality" with Elaine Hill. (2021). Science. Vol. 373, Issue 6557: 853-854.
"Economic, Environmental, and Health Impacts of the Fracking Boom" with Katie Black, Andrew Boslett, Elaine Hill and Shawn McCoy. (2021). Annual Review of Resource Economics. Vol. 13: 311-334.
"Rural Light Pollution from Shale Gas Development and Associated Sleep and Subjective Well-Being" with Andrew Boslett, Elaine Hill and Lujia Zhang. (2021). Resource and Energy Economics. Vol. 64.
"Mapping the Clean Air Haves and Have-nots." (2020). Science. Vol. 369, Issue 6503: 503-504.
"Sorting Over Flood Risks and Implications for Flood Insurance Reform" with Laura A. Bakkensen. (2020). Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. Vol. 104.
"Environmental Justice: Establishing Causal Relationships" with Spencer Banzhaf and Christopher Timmins. (2019). Annual Review of Resource Economics. Vol. 11: 377-398.
"User Responses to Imperfect Forecasts: Findings from an Experiment with Kentucky Wheat Farmers" with Yoko Kusunose (1st author) and David Van Sanford. (2019). Weather, Climate, and Society. Vol. 11, No. 4: 791-808.
"Learning in a Hedonic Framework: Valuing Brownfield Remediation." (2019). International Economic Review. Vol. 60, No. 3: 1355-1387.
"Environmental Justice: The Economics of Race, Place and Pollution" with Spencer Banzhaf and Christopher Timmins. (2019). Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 33, No. 1: 185-208.
"Flood Risk and Salience: New Evidence from the Sunshine State" with Laura A. Bakkensen and Xiaozhou Ding. (2019). Southern Economic Journal. Vol. 85, No. 4: 1132–1158.
“Use of Property Values and Location Decisions for Environmental Valuation.” (2018). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science: Environmental Economics, Jim Kahn (Ed.), Oxford University Press.
"Shale Gas Development and Drinking Water Quality" with Elaine L. Hill. (2017). American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings. Vol. 107, No. 5: 522-525.
"The Value of Brownfield Remediation" with Kevin Haninger and Christopher Timmins. (2017). Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Vol. 4, No. 1: 197-241.
Working Papers
"Who Benefits from Hazardous Waste Cleanups? Evidence from the Housing Market" with Alecia Cassidy and Elaine Hill. (2022). NBER Working Paper #30661.
"Racial Dynamics of Federal Property Buyouts in Flood-Prone Areas" with Kay Jowers and Chris Timmins (2022).
"The Health Impacts of Hazardous Waste Cleanups" with Alecia Cassidy and Elaine Hill. (2021).
"A Dynamic Approach to Explain Flood Risk Exposure and Household Location Choice” with Laura Bakkensen and Lucija Muehlenbachs. (2021).
Awards, Fellowships and Grants
2023-2024 “Secondary pollution in energy production: The case of ozone and the NOx Budget Program.” UK Energy Research Priority Area Seed Grant, University of Kentucky, $26,275.
2021-2023 “Wildfire Risks in Rural Communities: Measuring Impacts, Modeling Choices, Evaluating Policies.” Matthew Wibbenmeyer (Project Director/PI), Margaret Walls (PI), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), $425,015 (Ma subaward: $60,000).
2021 Junior Faculty Research Productivity Award, Gatton College of Business & Economics, University of Kentucky
2019 Research Excellence Summer Support Award, Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky
2018 Faculty Teaching Award, Department of Economics, University of Kentucky
2016-2020 “The Health Consequences of Shale Gas Development.” Elaine Hill (Project Director/PI), National Institutes of Health (1 DP5 OD021338-01; PI: Hill), (Ma subaward: $58,467)
2015-2016 University of Rochester Medical School EHSC IHSFC Grant with Elaine Hill (co-PI, $8,000)
2013-2014 Joseph L. Fisher Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Resources for the Future
2012, 2013 Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship, Duke University
2007 Marion Ricker Houston Prize Scholarship in Economics, Tufts University
Teaching & Advising
Courses Taught
ECO 410, 381 Environmental Economics (Undergraduate), University of Kentucky
ECO 491 Applied Econometrics (Undergraduate), University of Kentucky
ECO 499 Environmental Justice (Undergraduate), University of Kentucky
ECO 724 Environmental Economics (Ph.D.), University of Kentucky
Graduate Advising
Current:
- PhD Advisor/Co-Advisor: Fang-Yu (Elise) Yeh, Isaiah Bryant
- PhD Committee: Sam Owens (Public Policy)
Former PhD Committee (Initial Placement):
Ben Wallace (PhD 2019, Economist, Federal Trade Commission), Zheng Yang (PhD 2019, Assistant Professor, Liaoning University), Whitney Davis (PhD 2019 Public Policy), Sookti Chaudhary (PhD 2020, Assistant Professor, College of Wooster), Anh Le (PhD 2021, Economist, FDA), Timothy Hyde (CMU PhD 2022, Post-Doc, U Penn)
Professional Activities
Department, College, and University Service
Internal Advisory Board, United in True Racial Equity (UNITE) Research Priority Area (2022- )
College Promotion and Tenure Committee (2023-2024)
College Research Excellence Team (2022-2023)
College Diversity Committee (2017-18)
Graduate Studies Committee (2020-)
Department Recruiting Committee (2017-18, 2020-21)
Department Mark C. Berger Seminar and Workshop Committee (2017-)