Articles on : INFORMATION Why Should Environmental Scientists Talk to Economists? READ HERE
Article link : INFORMATION Why Should Environmental Scientists Talk to Economists? READ HERE
INFORMATION Why Should Environmental Scientists Talk to Economists? READ HERE
On Monday, October 7th 2013 I will give a lunch time talk at the UCLA IOE titled "Why Should Environmental Scientists Talk to Economists?" I had originally planned to give a less sexy talk about buses. Joint with Shan and Jerry, I will soon be presenting a new paper about buses at several U.S schools. When I presented this paper at the NUS in Singapore, this paper was very well received. But, some of my UCLA colleagues gently suggested to me that a discussion about buses would not pack the house.While I'm still thinking about what I will say on 10/7, here is a sketch of my remarks.
Point #0: Human behavior both impacts the environment and is impacted by the environment. It is a rare piece of environmental science research that is completely detached from issues related to economic growth, public policy and population growth. The moment you acknowledge this point then the economists have to be invited to the table.
Point #1: Real interdisciplinary research that combines science and social science is hard to do but it offers a very high rate of return.
Point #2: While everyone on the faculty at UCLA in fields other than Economics thinks they know economics (and they think it is a trivial field), Ph.D. economists should be given the benefit of the doubt that we are the experts about this subject. There appears to be an under-appreciation of how free markets allow the population to adapt and cope with changing circumstances. Just because we have wasted water in the past, doesn't mean that we will continue to do so if we raise the price of water!
Point #3: Unlike other social scientists, economists are able to foresee unintended consequences of government policy and to design credible empirical research designs for judging the size of these effects.
Point #4: Economists have the statistical skills for devising "natural experiments" for making the important jump from correlation to causation based on recent historical experiences.
Point #5: Economists have more and more practice implementing field experiments that help to pilot new policy ideas to see how they actually perform in the real world.
While the UCLA Institute of the Environment has many strengths, we haven't yet found the right formula for pairing off economists with climate scientists or with environmental scientists. Often grant proposals do not look like a real equal partnership but instead look like the economists have been added on at the end in order to help grants qualify for "special treatment". I think we can do better and that's why I'm giving this awkward talk.
Point #6: While the UCLA IOE has very strong economists, it is up to the environmental scientists who are experts about a specific setting and problem to "make the first move" and approach the economists by clearly stating what role human behavior plays as a cause of the environmental challenge or how people and economic activity will be impacted as a consequence of a specific environmental trend.
Permit me to offer some examples of serious interdisciplinary environmental science papers where economists have played a key role. These examples are not in order;
1. Chris Costello on global fisheries
2. Marty Smith on seafood
3. Alex Pfaff on deforestation
4. Auffhammer and Vincent on agricultural yields
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