Research Project Descriptions
Assistant Professor
Agricultural and Applied Economics
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Most of my projects are
motivated by the desire to understand how policies can be designed to enhance
ecosystem services that are impacted by human land-use decisions. My research tends to have a quantitative
empirical foundation with an emphasis on linking economic models with research
from disciplines such as ecology, geography, conservation biology, and
limnology.
Current Projects
The economics of
reducing wildlife habitat fragmentation
Residential development on
amenity-rich landscapes
Spatial externalities
and agriculture in developing countries
Incentive-based
policies for biodiversity
Amenities and
rural development
The economics of
reducing wildlife habitat fragmentation
Collaborators:
Andrew Plantinga (
This
project is aimed at exploring the effects of incentive-based land-use policies
on habitat fragmentation. While
fragmentation effects have been shown to have significant impacts on many
species of wildlife, there has been very little research on policies aimed at
mitigating fragmentation. One component
of this project is a theoretical model to understand policy design under the
presence of spatial externalities and incomplete information. A second component is an empirical framework
which links econometric models of land-use conversion with GIS-based landscape
simulations to examine the impacts of various policies on the spatial pattern
of land conversion. A third component uses the empirical model to test a
theoretically-optimal policy design against other policy designs.
Working Papers
Lewis, D.J., Plantinga, A.J., and J. Wu. 2007. “Targeting Incentives to Reduce Habitat Fragmentation.” Working Paper. PDF.
Refereed Journal Articles
Lewis, D.J., and A.J. Plantinga. 2007. “Policies for Habitat Fragmentation: Combining Econometrics with GIS-Based Landscape Simulations.” Land Economics, 83(2): 109-127.
Alig, R.J., D.J. Lewis, and J.J. Swenson. 2005. “Is
Residential
development on amenity-rich landscapes
Collaborators:
Bill Provencher (UW), Van Butsic
(UW student), Eric Horsch (UW student).
This
project is designed to understand factors that influence land conversion and
human settlement patterns on amenity-rich landscapes, with northern
Refereed Journal Articles
Lewis, D.J., Provencher, B., and V. Butsic. 2007. “The Dynamic Effects of Open-Space Conservation Policies on Residential Development Density.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (Forthcoming). See AAE Staff Paper No. 522.
Horsch, E.J., and D.J. Lewis. 2008. “The Effects of Aquatic
Invasive Species on Property Values: Evidence from a Quasi-Random Experiment.” Land Economics (Forthcoming). PDF Version of
working paper.
Working Papers
Lewis, D.J. 2008. “An Economic Framework for Forecasting Land Use and Ecosystem Change.” Working Paper. PDF Version.
Lewis, D.J. and B. Provencher. 2007. “The Implications of Heterogeneous
Preferences for Environmental Zoning.” Working Paper. PDF.
Provencher, B., Lewis, D.J., and J. Schoen. 2007. “Effects of Environmental Zoning on Household Sorting: Empirical Evidence and Ecological Implications.” Working Paper. See version to be presented at 2007 AAEA meetings: PDF Version.
Agricultural spatial
externalities, development, and the environment
Collaborators: Brad Barham (UW),
This project – which links resource and
development economics – is funded by NSF and is aimed at understanding the
influence of spatial externalities on agricultural land-use choice and
environmental quality in the context of both developing and developed
countries. Spatial externalities can link the return stream of farm income on
adjoining parcels of land and hence exert potentially important influences on
landscape pattern. Our primary goal is
to understand the land-use policy implications of physical and social
externalities that have a spatial dimension.
This research aims to shed light on the underlying structure and
potential identification strategies associated with quantifying agricultural
spatial externalities from observations of landscape change. Applications
examine bio-diverse Maize production in the Andean region of
Refereed Journal Articles
Lewis, D.J., Barham, B.L., and K. Zimmerer. 2008. “Spatial Externalities in Agriculture: Empirical Analysis, Statistical Identification, and Policy Implications.” World Development (In Press), doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.10.017. See AAE Staff Paper No 519.
Incentive-based
policies for biodiversity and ecosystem services
Collaborators: Steve Polasky
(U of MN), Andrew Plantinga (
This
multi-disciplinary project is aimed at modeling the effects of incentive-based
land use policies on biodiversity and other ecosystem services, such as carbon
sequestration. The team is a mix of
economists and ecologists and this work uses econometric models to predict the
spatial pattern of landscape change and resulting biodiversity outcomes in
response to incentive-based policies.
The first component of the project is focused on the
Refereed Journal Articles
Nelson, E., Polasky, S., Lewis, D.J., Plantinga, A.J., Lonsdorf, E., White, D., Bael, D., and J. Lawler. 2008. “Efficiency of Incentives to Jointly Increase Carbon Sequestration and Species Conservation on a Landscape.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(28): 9471-9476.
Working Papers
Lewis, D.J., Plantinga,
A.J., Nelson, E., and S. Polasky. 2008. “The Efficiency of Voluntary
Incentive Policies for Preventing Biodiversity Loss.” Working
Paper. PDF Version.
Amenities
and Rural Development
Collaborators: Andrew Plantinga
(
This
project is aimed at understanding the effects of environmental amenities on
rural development. The principal focus is on examining the effects of
publicly-owned conservation lands on migration, employment, and wage growth in
the rural northern forest region of the upper
Refereed Journal Articles
Lewis, D.J., G.L. Hunt and A.J. Plantinga. 2003. “Does Public Lands Policy Affect Local Wage Growth?” Growth and Change, 34(1): 64-86.
Lewis, D.J., G.L. Hunt and A.J.
Plantinga. 2002. "
Last revised: 8/30/08