UC Davis ARE assistant 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.

ARE PhD students Stuart Morrison and Ignacio Oliva each presented ongoing work as a part of the 3rd Year Prospectus Brown Bag series, which allows ARE students to workshop the ideas that will (or may) make up their prospectus. 

UC Davis economics PhD student Matias Solorza presented his work on the regional economic impacts of natural disasters in Chile. Matias' work analyzes the macroeconomic responses of Chilean regions to extreme weather-related shocks, such as floods and wildfires, using local projections. Unlike the positive effects observed in some developed countries, his findings reveal a persistent decline in regional GDP and a temporary reduction in private consumption.

Takefumi Fujimoto, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo, visited the NatuRE Policy Lab and presented his research on bycatch species with commercial values in Japan’s purse seine fishery. In 2023, large- and medium-scaled purse seiners in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea introduced individual quotas (IQ) for horse mackerel and chub/blue mackerel. Because of the two fishes' biological migration patterns, chub/blue mackerel, which has a commercial value, are often caught together with horse mackerel.

ARE PhD students Will Troske and Greg Boudreaux each presented ongoing work as a part of the 3rd Year Prospectus Brown Bag series, which allows ARE students to workshop the ideas that will (or may) make up their prospectus. 

ARE PhD candidate Kyumin Kim presented his research on the role of fisheries diversification in promoting non-fishing sector economic growth in fishing communities. While a diverse portfolio of fisheries has been shown to stabilize fisheries income for individual fishers and communities, evidence of its role in stabilizing broader local economies remains limited. This study addresses this gap by investigating how fisheries and industrial diversification influence the economic growth and stability of fishing economies.

ARE Ph.D. candidate Frederik Strabo presented his research on a fishing vessel buyback program deplyaed in the US West Coast Groundfish Fishery. Buyback programs have the potential to address increasing concerns of overcapacity as fisheries' productivity and spatial distribution change in response to changing ocean conditions. Thus, understanding the effects of previous buyback programs is essential for designing future programs to achieve their intended objectives. The U.S.

Leslie Sanchez, research economist at the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station presented on Native American water settlement negotiations. Water use in the western United States remains highly concentrated in irrigated agriculture, in part because the first in time, first in right tenets of appropriative water law have insulated irrigators, as senior appropriators, from legal challenges to their water use.

Laura Quinones presented ongoing research on PFAS, also known as “Forever Chemicals," that have become prevalent in domestic water supplies. The long lasting nature of these pollutants is worrisome and highlights the need for policy intervention. The discrepancy between state and federal regulation has led to unequal testing across the US. Data availability is sparse across states and limits our ability to perform policy evaluation surrounding these chemicals.

The NatuRE Policy lab hiked to the top of Fiske Peak in Cache Creek Canyon Regional Park this past weekend.

Ph.D. Candidate Joseph Raymond presented on the impact of diversification on the relative variability of fishing revenues in Alaska. Risk management in Alaskan fisheries is complicated by the dimensions along which fishers might reasonably diversify, and this introduces significant heterogeneity across participants.

ARE Ph.D. student Stuart Morrison presented his work on customer responses to variable electricity pricing in Australia. It is becoming increasingly common for energy providers to charge residential consumers a price that is driven by daily electricity markets, rather than a conventional, flat fee. Economic theory suggests that residential consumers will adjust their behavior as prices change throughout the day. But there are many margins along which this adjustment might occur.

Erica Chuang, Ph.D. candidate in the University of California San Diego Department of Economics, presented on principle of targeting for environmental externalities. Economists generally agree that in terms of tax and subsidy structure, Pigou is king. However, market-based instruments that imprecisely target externalities are common, and the degree to which imprecision matters for the objectives of those policies has yet to be fully explored.

Dasha Ageikina presented ongoing research on the impacts of media coverage on the allocation of public resources to fighting wildfire. She hypothesizes that media coverage increases the pressure on public officials to take action to control a fire, possibly in ways that are not welfare enhancing.