PEOPLE

W. Michael Hanemann

Center Director
Julie A. Wrigley Chair in Economics and Sustainability

Michael Hanemann is a Julie A. Wrigley Chair in Economics and Sustainability with the School of Sustainability and W.P. Carey School of Business; and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist, Global Institute of Sustainability. Hanemann is also a Chancellor's Professor Emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Resources Economics and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, where he was on the faculty since 1976. Prior to joining the faculty at Berkeley, he earned a B.A. from Oxford University in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Michael Hanemann is a leading contributor to the field of environmental and resource economics. He is best known for his work on non-market valuation for environmental and other commodities using both revealed and stated preference, but he has also made important contributions to the economics of water, the economics of irreversibility and environmental management under uncertainty, and more recently the economics of climate change. Michael's research has focused largely on aspects of understanding and modeling individual preferences and individual choice behavior, with applications to demand forecasting, the design of conservation policy, and environmental regulation.

Awards recognizing Hanemann's excellence in the field include election as member of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011, Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association, 2010, Lifetime Award for Outstanding Achievement from the European Association of Environmental & Resource Economists in 2008, Inaugural Fellow of the Association of Environmental & Resource Economists in 2006, and an honorary doctorate from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in 2003. He is a lead author in Working Group III of the IPCC Fifth Assessment.

W.P. Carey Directory

Sustainability Directory

Nicolai V. Kuminoff

Assistant Professor

Nicolai V. Kuminoff is an assistant professor in the department of economics at Arizona State University. His research interests include environmental, public, and urban economics, as well as applied microeconometrics. Recent and ongoing projects have involved: (1) extending equilibrium sorting models to describe interrelated outcomes in the housing and labor markets; (2) developing a unified framework for modeling hedonic equilibria and land value capitalization of public goods; (3) estimating implicit expenditures on non-market goods and services in the United States; and (4) defining sufficient conditions for partially identifying consumer preferences for the attributes of a differentiated product. Nick moved to ASU from Virginia Tech, where he was an assistant professor in the department of agricultural and applied economics from 2006 to 2009.

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V. Kerry Smith

Regents' Professor and W. P. Carey Professor of Economics

V. Kerry Smith is a Regents' Professor and W. P. Carey Professor of Economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist at the Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University. He is also an affiliated faculty member with the School of Sustainability and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Kerry's general research interests include environmental economics, public economics, and applied econometrics. More specific topics include: economic valuation of environmental amenities and ecosystem services, sorting models and general equilibrium policy analysis, and the modeling of how uncertainty influences individuals' behavior. He came to ASU from North Carolina State where he was the University Distinguished Professor and was Director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy. Prior to North Carolina State, he held positions as the Arts and Sciences Professor of Environmental Economics at Duke University and the Centennial Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of both the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and the American Agricultural Economics Association, a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a University Fellow with Resources for the Future.

W.P. Carey Directory

Eric Van Buren

Undergraduate Research Fellow

Eric Van Buren is a Research Fellow for the Center for Environmental Economics and Sustainability Policy. After graduating in May with a double major in mathematics and economics and a minor in sustainability, Eric will pursue a PhD in biostatistics. His honors thesis analyzes the extent to which individuals respond to air quality, and he hopes to use his graduate studies as a way to raise understanding and awareness about the health effects of environmental hazards.

Outside of the office, Eric enjoys hiking anywhere in the desert, playing basketball and ping-pong, and challenging his brother to games of bridge and euchre.

Scott Van Buren

Undergraduate Research Fellow

Scott Van Buren is a Research Fellow for the Center for Environmental Economics and Sustainability Policy. He will finish his time as an undergraduate in May with a double major in economics and mathematics and a minor in sustainability. With his brother Eric and Danielle Bäck, he wrote his undergraduate thesis on behavioral responses to information about air quality.

Outside of work, Scott enjoys playing and watching sports, hiking, and card games, specifically bridge and poker. He will go on to pursue a PhD in biostatistics in the fall and plans to continue researching the effects air pollution and other environmental hazards have on human health and behavior.