Source Themes

A general relationship between extinction risk and carrying capacity

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

Do religions codify ecological principles? This paper explores theoretically and empirically the role religious beliefs play in shaping environmental interactions. We study African Traditional Religions (ATR) which place forests within a sacred …

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

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 radar time series …

Bringing the Economics of Biodiversity into Policy and Decision-making

Revise and Resubmit, Nature Sustainability

Quickest detection of ecological regime shifts for natural resource management

Environmental and Resource Economics (2024). EAERE Award for Outstanding Publication in ERE (Commended paper)

Can one hear the shape of a target zone?

Journal of Mathematical Economics (2023)

Skew-Normal Diffusions

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)