Department faculty have worked throughout the world on land reform, property rights issues, and land taxation. Forestry harvesting practices are being studied to understand the factors that determine the nature and timing of harvest decisions. Fisheries policy constitutes an important aspect of Great Lakes management. Department faculty and students are engaged in research on both of these important questions. Benefit-cost analysis and its theoretical underpinning in welfare economics continue to present challenges to environmental and resource economists.
Most policies require a regulatory impact assessment.
Many state and national policies call for an assessment of benefits and costs. Faculty and students are undertaking studies of various environmental policies by drawing on the analytical tools of benefit-cost methods. Various federal statutes require an economic assessment of the damages from oil tanker accidents, hazardous waste spills, and contaminated sites. Faculty are involved in this work at both the conceptual and the empirical levels. At the conceptual level there is a large difference in estimates of the willingness to pay for damage avoidance, and the compensation required to tolerate damages to environmental resources.