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Benjamin A. Jones, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Economics The University of New Mexico Email: bajones@unm.edu Department page: https://tinyurl.com/bajUNMecon |
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I'm an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and I have faculty affiliations at the University of Oklahoma (National Institute for Risk and Resilience), the UNM Water Resources Program, and the UNM Sustainability Studies Program. I also currently serve on the Editorial Council for the Journal of Environmental Economics & Management and am a Faculty Mentor in both the AEA Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession and in the AERE Scholars Program.
I specialize in environmental and natural resource economics with a particular emphasis on the epidemiological and health dimensions of environmental economics. |
BBC World News interview on the environmental impacts of Bitcoin (May 13, 2021)
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My research focuses on the economic connections between nature, human health, and well-being. I'm interested in understanding how changes in pollution exposures caused by shocks to ecosystem services impact human health and welfare and how such information can inform resource management and policy. I see this work as contributing to the broader interdisciplinary literature on environmental and ecosystem determinants of health and social welfare in coupled human and natural systems.
Two methods I primarily use in my work are: (i) modern causal inference econometric techniques, and; (ii) theoretical dynamic optimization models and numerical simulations. For (i), I exploit instances of natural or quasi-experiments using modern applied econometrics to credibly investigate relationships between nature, human health, and well-being. For (ii), I construct and numerically simulate bioeconomic-health models of coupled human and natural systems to dynamically study optimal environmental and natural resource management in the presence of human health externalities.
My work has been discussed by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press (AP), CBS News, The Guardian, Popular Science magazine, Nature Sustainability research highlights, and FoxBusiness.com.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS [full list available here]:
- Jones, B.A. (2020). "After the Dust Settles: The Infant Health Impacts of Dust Storms." Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 7(6): 1005-1032.
- Goodkind, A., Jones, B.A., and R. Berrens. (2020). "Cryptodamages: Monetary Value Estimates of the Air Pollution and Human Health Impacts of Cryptocurrency Mining." Energy Research & Social Science 59: 101281.
- Jones, B.A. and S. McDermott. (2018). "The Economics of Urban Afforestation: Insights from an Integrated Bioeconomic-Health Model." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 89: 116-135.
- Jones, B.A., R. Berrens, H. Jenkins-Smith, C. Silva, J. Ripberger, D. Carlson, K. Gupta, and W. Wehde. (2018). "In Search of an Inclusive Approach: Measuring Non-market Values for the Effects of Complex Dam, Hydroelectric and River System Operations." Energy Economics 69: 225-236.
- Jones, B.A. (2017). "Are We Underestimating the Economic Costs of Wildfire Smoke? An Investigation Using the Life Satisfaction Approach." Journal of Forest Economics 27: 80-90.
- Jones, B.A. (2017). "Invasive Species Impacts on Human Well-Being Using the Life Satisfaction Index." Ecological Economics 134: 250-257.
