Erik Nelson

Affiliation: Economics

Associate Professor of Economics, Chair of the Economics Department

Erik Nelson is an associate professor of economics. He is an environmental economist with research interests in land management, biodiveristy conservation and the impacts of climate change on agriculture.

He studies the benefits and costs of managing land to enhance or maintain ecosystem service supply as well as setting aside land for biodiversity conservation. His work searches for land-use patterns that meet an ecological or biological goal at least cost to society, and describes the efficiency and efficacy of mechanisms designed to generate cost-effective land use patterns. His role on interdisciplinary research teams is to provide the appropriate economic theory and computational expertise in simulation modeling and mathematical programming has been particularly vital to these interdisciplinary projects. He teaches classes on microeconomics, environmental economics and policy, land use/ecosystem services, and mathematical economics.

Curriculum Vitae

Personal website

Education

PhD, Applied Economics with a Concentration in Environmental Economics and a Minor in Conservation Biology, Dissertation: Essays on the Allocation of Federal Species-Specific Recovery Funds Under the US Endangered Species Act, University of Minnesota, 2007
MA, Public Affairs with a Concentration in Environmental Policy and Economics Development, University of Minnesota, 1998
BA, Philosophy and Political Science, Boston College, 1993