ENVIRONMENTAL AND

NATURAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS
at
The Ohio State University

Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics
103 Agricultural Administration Building
Columbus, OH 43210

GENERAL INFORMATION

Environmental and Resource Economics has a more than 50 year history at Ohio State University, with roots in agricultural and land economics. This field applies economic concepts and tools to issues like air and water pollution, land use, waste disposal, invasive species, and other environmental issues. Environmental economists inform environmental debates and policy decisions by estimating the benefits and costs of alternative policies, describing how environmental impacts affect economic systems, and assessing the economic performance of alternative policies that can be used to mitigate environmental problems.

Five faculty members in the department support a strong teaching, research, and extension program:

Fred Hitzhusen (Professor)
Lawrence Libby (Professor and Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy)
Alan Randall (Professor and Department Chair)
Brent Sohngen (Assistant Professor)
Douglas Southgate (Professor)

In addition to these individuals, several other faculty members in the department have interests in related areas, such as regional economics and land use:

D. Lynn Forster (Professor)
Elena Irwin (Assistant Professor)
David Kraybill (Associate Professor)

Research in environmental and natural resource economics applies economic theory and methods to local, state, national, and international issues. Work by researchers in this department has been widely published and cited, and our faculty members have consistently attracted extramural funding (currently approximately $1,000,000, with several domestic and international proposals pending). Some examples of issues currently being addressed by faculty in this department include:

• Economic analysis of the Muskingum River Corridor
• Benefits transfer and off-site impacts of soil erosion
• Economics of alternative land-use policies and institutions
• Analysis and assessment of state and local rules guiding the pattern and pace of farmland conversion at the rural-urban interface
• Assessment of state institutions for managing waste from animal agriculture
• Benefits and costs in natural resources planning and policies affecting public and private land
• Policy framework for non-indigenous species introductions in the Great Lakes
• Incentive-based policies for control of point and nonpoint source pollution
• Public policy and timber markets in Ecuador
• Use and management of natural resources in El Salvador
• Forests, economics, and global climate change
• Valuing Lake Erie beaches and beach amenities

The graduate program in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics offers opportunities for individuals interested in both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Currently, there are approximately 20 graduate students in the program. The field includes six well-established undergraduate and graduate courses and a strong set of complementary courses in other departments. Courses offered by faculty in this department include:

AEDE 597.01 Global Population, Food and Environmental Problems and Policies
AEDE 531 Natural Resource and Environmental Economics
AEDE 631 Benefit-Cost Analysis
AEDE 902 Computable General Equilibrium Analysis
AEDE 807 Economic Analysis for Collective Choice
AEDE 831 Resource Economics
AEDE 993.05 Special Topics in Resource and Community Economics
AEDE 995 Advanced Resource Economics Seminar

As applied economists, a main goal is to provide relevant information to the policy process and debates over environmental issues. The program provides outreach in three different programs:

• The Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy focuses on land use issues
• The Extension Program in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics provides information to state and local policy makers on the economics of land and watershed issues
• Individual faculty members research or speak about important issues within the state of Ohio.

FACULTY

FRED HITZHUSEN
Professor
226 Ag Admin
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-6244
Hitzhusen.1@osu.edu

Dr. Hitzhusen's current research interests include: The economics of sustainable agriculture, forest and mining systems with emphasis on off-site soil sediment and water quality costs; valuing river systems; development and application of benefit-transfer models; and ecological economic assessment of wetlands and other natural systems. He also teaches AEDE 807, Economic Analysis for Collective Choice, AEDE 631, Benefit Cost Analysis, and AEDE/IS 597.01, Global Population, Food and Environment. Dr. Hitzhusen has also co-taught a graduate course on Ecological Economics (NR 800).

Recent Publications

Bejranonda, Samskow, Fred Hitzhusen, and Diane Hite.  1999.   "Agricultural Sediment Impacts on Lakeside Property Values."  Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Vol. 28, No. 2.

Shakya, Bibhakar and Fred Hitzhusen. "A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Conservation Reserve Program in Ohio: Are Trees Part of a Sustainable Future in the Midwest?" Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1997, pp. 3-29.

Hitzhusen, F.J. "Off-site Costs of Soil Erosion, Property Rights and Conservation Policy: Some Ohio Evidence and Implications," Chapter 10, Evaluating Natural Resource Use in Agriculture, T. Robertson et al. (Editors) Iowa State University Press, 1997, pp. 225-239.

Hitzhusen, Fred and Craig Davis. "Environmentally Sustaining Agriculture: A Response," Choices. First Quarter 1997, pp. 15-17.

Forster, L. and F. Hitzhusen. "Ohio Farmers' Perceptions of Financial Losses and Benefits from Wildlife," Journal of Amer. Society of Farm Mgmt. and Rural Appraisers, 1997, pp. 30-33, (Won Gold Quill Award as outstanding 1997 article).

• Economics of Sustainable Agricultural, Forest and Mining Systems: Offsite Costs (Hatch 097).
• Benefits Transfer and Off-Site Impacts of Soil Erosion (Funding: OARDC)
• Toward a New Paradigm for Point/Nonpoint Water Pollution (USDA/EPA Ph.D. Fellowship).
• Economic Analysis of River Corridors (Funding: Rivers Unlimited for Muskingum and US Fish and Wildlife Service for Mahoning.
• Economic Evaluation of Ohio EPA's Anti-Degradation Rule Including Socioeconomic Reviews (Funding: OEPA)
• Ecological and Economic Analysis of Natural Capital: Analyzing the Substitutability of Constructed Wetlands for Natural Sites (Funding: OSU Graduate School and Environmental Policy Initiative Competitive Grants)

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LAWRENCE W. LIBBY
Professor and Swank Chair in Rural-Urban Policy
336 Ag Admin
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 688-4907
Libby.7@osu.edu

Dr. Libby's research focuses on the economic, social and political consequences of alternative policy mechanisms designed to allocate rights and responsibilities in use of natural resources. Policy options constitute various sets of market rules that influence terms of trade among competitors for the services of natural resources. Consequences of those options include indicators of departure from market efficiency as defined by current market rules, distributional consequences of the changes (whose interests are expanded and whose constrained), and resulting impacts on the politics of resource use as some costs or benefits of policy change are sufficient to gain entry on the policy agenda.

Subject matter applications include farmland retention policy, growth management, various agro-environmental issues, protection of unique eco-systems, management of public lands.

Libby, L. and P. Stewart "The Economics of Farmland Conversion" Under the Blade: The Conversion of Agricultural Landscapes. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999. Pp 137-180.

Libby, L. "Farmland Protection for Illinois: The Planning and Legal Issues" Northern Illinois Law Review. 17:3(Summer, 1997) pp425-440.

Libby, L. "Policy Directions Affecting Public Use of Private Land" Natural Resources Income Opportunities on Private Land: Conference Proceedings. College Park, MD: University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service, pp.11-17

Libby L. "Implementing Good Intentions: How Rules and Procedures May Alter Resource Policy Outcomes" Increasing Understanding of Public Problems and Policies:1997, Oak Brook, IL: The Farm Foundation, 1998, pp136-149.

• Study of the spatial distribution of tax savings realized by participants in the Ohio Current Agricultural Use Value Assessment program (Funding: USDA Fund for Rural America)
• Unintended impacts of tax and infrastructure policy on rural land use patterns.
• Assessment of state institutions for managing waste from animal agriculture. This is a national project with economists from several other states.
• Organizing and leading five workshops on agro-environmental issues in the Great Lakes region (with Sandra Batie at Michigan State University).
• Ongoing analysis and assessment of state and local rules guiding the pattern and pace of farmland conversion at the rural-urban interface in Ohio, other states, and internationally.
• The potential of cooperative arrangements among farmers by which they may gain from development while maintaining most of their land in agriculture.
• Alternative governance systems for multi-jurisdictional management of land and water use.

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ALAN RANDALL
Professor and Department Chair
103 Ag Admin
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-6423
arandall+@osu.edu

Dr. Randall's primary research areas are natural resource economics, project evaluation, and benefit cost analysis, including theory and methods of estimating environmental benefits and assessing environmental damages. Teaching responsibilities include Research Methods; organizes and leads the advanced graduate workshop in resource economics each year. In addition to the formal projects listed below, Dr. Randall publishes regularly on the economic and ethical foundations of policy to promote sustainability and biodiversity.

Randall, A: (1999) Making the Environment Count: Selected Essays, Edward Elgar (in press).

Hentschel, E. and Alan Randall:(1999) "An Integrated Strategy to Reduce Monitoring and Enforcement Costs" Environmental and Resource Economics (in press).

Farmer, M., and Alan Randall: (1998) "The Rationality of a Safe Minimum Standard of Conservation" Land Economics 74:287-302.

Randall, Alan: (1997) "The NOAA Panel Report: A New Beginning Of the End of An Era?" American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79:1489-1494.

Farmer, M., and Alan Randall: (1997) "Policies for Sustainability: Lessons from an Overlapping Generations Model," Land Economics 73:608-622.

• Benefits and Costs in Natural Resources Planning/Benefits and Costs of Policies Affecting Public and Private Land. Ohio’s contribution to a regional research project with 38 states involved. Objectives are to develop, test and apply methods for evaluating the benefits and costs of natural resource development, enhancement, and injury; and to improve the transferability of benefit and cost estimates.
• Policy Framework for Nonindigenous Species Introductions, Great Lakes. Objectives are to develop a framework, based on sustainability concepts, for policy decisions concerning deliberate introductions of nonindigenous species; to devise efficient incentives, monitoring, and enforcement to reduce risk of accidental introductions; and to conduct an empirical analysis of the social costs of the accidental introduction of the zebra mussel into the Great Lakes.
• Incentive-Based Policies for Control of Point and Nonpoint Pollution. This research program combines several on-going projects: incentives for elimination of persistent toxic pollutants in the Great Lakes; examination of the incentive properties of audit confidentiality and immunity laws; and point-nonpoint trading programs in pollution reduction credits, which has special relevance to pollution from agricultural sources.

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BRENT SOHNGEN
Assistant Professor
322 Ag Admin
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 688-4640
sohngen.1@osu.edu

Dr. Sohngen's primary research interests lie in modeling land-use and land-cover change, economics of nonpoint source pollution, and valuing environmental and ecological change. Recent research efforts include estimating the market impact of climate change in US and global timber markets, estimating the cost of carbon sequestration in forests, valuing southeastern US forests and Lake Erie beaches and beach amenities, and estimating the costs of agricultural pollution control.

Currently, Dr. Sohngen is developing an extension and outreach program in environmental and natural resource economics. This program focuses on providing sound economic research results to state and local policymakers. Some of the issues addressed involve sedimentation in the Maumee river basin, the value of Lake Erie beaches, and non point source pollution. Teaching responsibilities include an undergraduate/graduate course in environmental and natural resource economics, including an option to take this as a distance learning course over the internet.

Sohngen, B. and R. Mendelsohn. 1998. "Valuing the Market Impact of Large Scale Ecological Change: The Effect of Climate Change on US Timber." American Economic Review, 88(4): 689 - 710.

Sohngen, B., R. Mendelsohn, and R. Neilson. 1998. "Predicting CO₂ Emissions from Forests During Climate Change: A Comparison of Human and Natural Response Models." Ambio, 27(7): 509-513.

Pendleton, L., B. Sohngen, R. Mendelsohn, and T. Holmes. 1998. "Measuring Environmental Quality in the Southern Appalachian Mountains." Forest Science, 44(4): 603-609

Sohngen, R. and R. Sedjo. 1998. "A Comparison of Timber Market Models: Static Simulation and Optimal Control Approaches." Forest Science, 44(1): 24-36.

Sohngen, B., R. Mendelsohn, R. Sedjo. 1999. "Forest Management, Conservation, and Global Timber Markets" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 81(February 1999).

Sohngen, B. and R. Haynes. 1997. "The Potential for Increasing Carbon Storage in United States Unreserved Timberlands by Reducing Forest Fire Frequency: An Economic and Ecological Analysis," Climatic Change, 35(2): 179-197.

• Estimating the Cost of Carbon Sequestration in Global Forests (Funding: US Environmental Protection Agency)
• Point-Nonpoint Permit Trading Mechanisms to Reduce Costs and Increase Efficiency in Agricultural Pollution Control (Funding USDA National Research Initiative)
• Competition for Land on the Urban-Rural Interface (Funding: USDA Fund For Rural America)
• Valuing Amenities of Lake Erie Beaches (Funding: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Ohio Sea Grant; Lake Erie Protection Fund)
• The Costs of Delivering Sediment to Toledo Harbor (Funding: The Lake Erie Protection Fund)

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DOUGLAS SOUTHGATE
Professor
329 Agricultural Administration Building
Columbus, OH 43210
292-2432
southgate.1@osu.edu

A natural resource economist, Dr. Southgate specializes in the study of environmental problems in developing countries. In addition to the causes of tropical deforestation and the benefits and costs of improved watershed management, his research addresses the influence of public policy on natural resource development.

Southgate, Douglas. Tropical Forest Conservation: An Economic Assessment of the Alternatives in Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Southgate, Douglas and Morris Whitaker. Economic Progress and the Environment: One Developing Country's Policy Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Southgate, Douglas and Howard Clark. "Can conservation Projects Save

Biodiversity in South America? Ambio. 22:2-3 (1993) 163-166.

• Principal investigator for study of public policy and timber markets in Ecuador, carried out by Midwest Universities' Consortium for International Activities for U.S. Agency for International Development.
• Co-investigator for study of impacts on rural poverty and the use and management of natural resources of policy-induced distortions in factor markets in El Salvador, carried out by Ohio State University for U.S. Agency for International Development.
• Senior advisor on wildlife and habitat conservation policy for Harvard Institute for International Development to Government of Tanzania and U.S. Agency for International Development.

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FACULTY WITH RELATED INTERESTS

D. Lynn Forster
Professor

Dr. Forster's primary research interests include farm and agribusiness financial performance, soil erosion, waste disposal, and alternative farming systems.

Elena Irwin
Assistant Professor

Dr. Irwin's area of specialization is regional and community economics. Her primary research interests focus on the consequences of economic growth and decline in local and regional economies, including changes in settlement patterns in suburban, exurban, and rural areas; the influence of government policies on residential location decisions; and the relationship between urban sprawl and core urban decline. This research applies theory and modeling techniques from the fields of spatial and regional economics, including the application of spatial econometrics and geographic information systems (GIS). Courses taught include Principles of Food and Resource Economics (AED Econ 200).

David Kraybill
Associate Professor

Dr. Kraybill's primary research areas are regional economics, rural development, economic development policy, general equilibrium modeling of regions, and business growth analysis. His research has focused on the regional effects of trade and fiscal policies, the effectiveness of tax abatements in stimulating regional employment growth, the regional economic effects of federal environmental policies, the dynamics of regional growth, the determinants of business enterprise growth, and the role of social capital in regional growth. He teaches courses in Microeconomics I (AED Econ 711), Regional Economic Growth: Theory and Methods (AED Econ 840), and Computable General Equilibrium Analysis (AED Econ 902).

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[Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics]
Updated 06/09/06 by Brent Sohngen