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.

Matt Dudek presented his work on the impact of grid-scale battery storage capacity on electricity prices in California. A key barrier to expanding renewable energy production is the daily mismatch between intermittent generation and electricity demand. For example, despite a massive expansion in the low marginal cost solar power production, electricity can only be produced from these sources when the sun is shining.

New ARE faculty member Dr. Jay Sayre presented his work on the use of remote sensing methods to predict agricultural and ecological outcomes at fine scale using only relatively aggregated, publicly available data. He showed how he and his co-authors combine machine learning algorithms that capture agronomic features of crop growth trained on satellite imagery to estimate maize yields in Mexico.

Kyumin Kim’s research focuses on the impact of diversification on risk and return in the context of fishing revenues in Alaskan fishing communities. Unlike earlier studies, Kyumin adopts the principles of modern portfolio theory to analyze and elucidate the risk-return tradeoff in commercial fishing, specifically at the community level.