Source Themes

A general relationship between extinction risk and carrying capacity

R&R, Nature Communications. We establish the relationship between a population’s probability of extinction and its carrying capacity as a modified Gompertz curve, a key quantity for assessing conservation status and guiding efforts to understand and mitigate the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

Sacred Ecology: The Environmental Impact of African Traditional Religions

Can religions shape ecosystems? We explore the role religious beliefs play in human-environment interactions by studying African Traditional Religions (ATR), which place forests within a sacred sphere. We focus on the unique case of Benin, whose …

The Destruction of Gaza: Satellite Measurements of the Economic Cost of War

R&R, PNAS Nexus. We map and estimate the economic impact of the Israel-Hamas war on the Gaza Strip that began after the October 7th 2023 attacks by Palestinian militant groups. Using data on damage to Gaza's built environment derived with satellite …

Bringing the Economics of Biodiversity into Policy and Decision-making

R&R, Nature Sustainability. The Target and Cost Analysis (TCA) approach is proposed as a means of reflecting in 25 government appraisals the societal cost of biodiversity losses arising from government investment and regulatory changes. Influenced by how carbon is priced in the UK, the resulting biodiversity price reflects the marginal cost of meeting societal targets, and hence avoids disagreements on the use of willingness to pay measures for this purpose.

Quickest Detection of Ecological Regimes for Natural Resource Management

Environmental and Resource Economics, (2024) EAERE Special commendation for outstanding publication in ERE.

Can one hear the shape of a target zone?

Journal of Mathematical Economics (2023)

Skew-Normal Diffusions

R&R, Journal of Statistical Physics. We study stochastic differential equations whose solutions behave according to skewed Gaussian distributions. We uncover a wide new class of diffusions characterized by a Brownian motion with a non-homogeneous drift, obtained via generalized h-transforms of a new class of local martingales. These diffusions are interpretable as partially observable Brownian motions, and can be used as skew-inducing noise sources for any Ito process.

Dams, Snails and Poverty Traps

Irrigation schemes are one of the most important policy responses designed to reduce poverty, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Concomitantly, they facilitate the propagation of schistosomiasis, a water-based debilitating disease that is endemic in …

The Economic Impact of Schistosomiasis

Infectious Diseases of Poverty (2021)

Increasing Risk: Dynamic Mean-Preserving Spreads

Journal of Mathematical Economics (2020)