NatuRE Policy Lab

ARE PhD students Matt Dudek and Mahdi Shams presented their respective research in the Lab this week. 
 

ARE PhD students Will Troske and Ignacio Oliva each presented ongoing work, titled "Global warming, inequality, and dependence on the environment" and "The Behavioral Impact of Sulfur Fuel Content Regulations in Maritime Shipping" respectively. 

Stanford University Hoover Fellow Milan Quentel, who will be joining Universidad Carlos III de Madrid as an assistant professor in 2026, visited the lab to present his work on the optimal siting of renewable electricity infrastucture. Renewable energy has enormous welfare potential, yet development around the world remains slow, in part because residents protest the amenity impacts of wind and solar parks.

UC Davis ARE professor Eric Edwards presented his work, joint with Sara Sutherland, examining the political and economic determinants of the supply of national park land. Political science and economics offer a variety of models on how a government provides public goods under competing economic incentives across institutions, but empirical evidence remains limited. In this paper, Eric and Sara examine park additions and budget allocation decisions by the U.S.

ARE PhD candidate Bruno Pimenta presented his work on how deforestation in the Amazon responds to drought, and how this response differs between private and public land. Climate change has made drought events in the Amazon more frequent. Manmade deforestation can further deteriorate the region's climate, and weather conditions may also influence a farmer's decision to deforest. The Brazilian Amazon is a mosaic of public and private lands, and farmers in public lands may not have incentives to manage their lands sustainably.