Christopher Costello

Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics

   



 

    

Research Interests:

I am a professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara. My research concerns natural resource management and property rights under uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on information, its value, and its effect on management decisions. My work combines theoretical work from economics with empirical analysis, often to inform policy.  My topical interests include fisheries management, biological diversity, introduced species, regulation of polluting industries, and marine policy, and I frequently collaborate with researchers outside of economics such as statistics, ecology, biogeography, and mathematics.

I am on sabbatical at LAMETA in Montpellier, France, until July, 2013.

    Curriculum Vitae       

Prospective Students: Feel free to contact me.  Please note:

          

 

Mailing Address:
Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
4410 Bren Hall
UC Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA  93106-5131

Office Location: 4410 Bren Hall
Office Hours: By appointment

Phone: (805) 893-5802
Fax: (805) 893-7612
Email: costello@bren.ucsb.edu
 

 

Graduate Student Advisees

Dan Kaffine (2007)
Dan’s research is in spatial modeling and the economic and ecological consequences of incomplete spatial property rights. Dan earned his PhD in 2007 and is an Assistant Professor at Colorado School of Mines.

 

 

Antonio Lloret (2007)
Antonio Lloret: Antonio is interested in informal international environmental agreements. Antonio earned his PhD in 2007 and is an Assistant Professor in the Business School at ITAM in Mexico City.

 

 

Mike Springborn (2008)
Michael Springborn: Mike’s research is in environmental decision making under uncertainty with learning. He earned his PhD in 2008 and is an Assistant Professor at UC Davis.

 

 

John Lynham (2008)
John works at the intersection of environmental economics and behavioral economics, with a mix of theory and empirical analysis, often focused on natural resources. He earned his PhD in Economics and his Masters in Ecology in 2008 and is an Assistant Professor at University of Hawaii.

 

 

Marc Conte (2008)
Marc’s research is in the valuation and management of ecosystem services, using a mix of empirics and theory. Marc is an Assistant Professor at Fordham University.

 

 

Chris Guo (2012)
Chris works on learning and adaptation in energy and environmental economics.  He is researcher at the RAND Corporation.

 

 

 

 


Current Professional Involvement

  • Board Member: Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE). January 2010-Present.

 

  • Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

 

 

  • Board Member: Seafood Watch Science Advisory Committee (Monterey Bay Aquarium). 2012-Present.

 

  • Member of Science Advisory Team for California’s Ocean Protection Council


Major Research Areas

Sustainable Fisheries Group:
As the lead economist, Costello and colleagues take science to solutions involving property rights and fisheries conservation and management.

Uncertainty and Learning:
Much of Costello's research concerns decision making under uncertainty.

Environmental Markets:
How to design and evaluate the performance of markets for environmental goods.

 

Courses Taught

Number

Title

242

Natural Resource Economics Policy

232

Environmental Modeling

204

Economics of Environmental Management

206

Statistics & Data Analysis For Environmental Problem Solving

 

Selected Recent Journal Publications

The value of adaptation: climate change and timberland management. (with C. Guo). Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. In Press. (2013)

Status and solutions for the world's unassessed fisheries (with D. Ovando, S. Lester, S. Gaines, O. Deschenes, R. Hilborn)Science. (2012)

Reforming fisheries: lessons from a self-selected cooperative (with R. Deacon and D. Parker). Journal of Law and Economics. Forthcoming. (2012)

Marine protected areas and the value of spatially optimized fishery management. (with A. Rassweiler and D. Siegel). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Forthcoming. (2012)

The value of coordinated management of interacting ecosystem services. (with C. White, B. Kendall, and C. Brown). Ecology Letters, 15: 509-519. (2012)

A market approach to save the whales. (with L. Gerber and S. Gaines). Nature, 481:139-140. (2012)

Marine protected areas in spatial property rights fisheries. (with D. Kaffine). Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 54(3): 321-341 (2010).

The value of spatial information in MPA network design. (with Rassweiler, Siegel, De Leo, Micheli, and Rosenberg). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Forthcoming (2010).

Rebuilding global fisheries (with B. Worm, R. Hilborn et al.).  Science. 325: 578-585. (2009)

Can catch shares prevent fisheries collapse? (with S. Gaines and J. Lynham). Science. 321: 1678-1681. (2008).

Natural resource use with limited tenure property rights. (with D. Kaffine). Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 55(1): 20-36. (2008).