Welcome!
I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
I am an applied economist specializing in environmental and natural resource economics, with a particular focus on land use and water resource policy. My work focuses on two primary areas: (1) assessing the impact of tropical forest conservation and agricultural policies, (2) developing and evaluating integrated assessment models to study water quality, particularly nutrient pollution.
I hold a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics and Environmental Informatics from Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech.
I am on the academic job market for 2024-2025. Check out my CV [here].
Job Market Paper
"Beyond the Canopy: Sources of Satellite Data and Deforestation Policy Evaluation in Brazil" with Kathryn Baragwanath
Abstract
Satellite data is essential for monitoring deforestation and informing environmental policy, but the resolution of these data can significantly influence both policy implementation and evaluation. This study examines the impact of Brazil’s 2008 Blacklisting policy in the Amazon, using multiple satellite datasets. We find that the dataset traditionally used for both monitoring and evaluation systematically overestimates the policy’s effectiveness due to its inability to detect small deforestation patches. We argue that its dual role as both the monitoring tool for enforcement and the source of data for policy assessment, together with its coarse resolution, leads to additional issues caused by strategic adaptation. By analyzing over 500GB of data, equivalent to over 180 billion Landsat pixels, we identify significant discrepancies in deforestation behaviors captured by varying resolutions of satellite data. Our analysis reveals that deforesting agents strategically adapt their behavior in response to stricter monitoring, creating smaller patches that evade detection by coarser datasets. These findings highlight the importance of high-resolution data for evaluating the true effects of deforestation policies and addressing strategic adaptations that challenge enforcement efforts.
Paper selected for Data, Information, and the Environment Workshop with Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and CAGE, Warwick 2024
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