Christopher Costello

Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics

Research Interests:

Christopher Costello is Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara. His research is primarily in the area of environmental regulation and natural resource management under uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on information, its value, and its effect on management decisions. He is also interested in the process and design of adaptive management programs in which learning (to resolve uncertainty or asymmetric information) is actively pursued. Topical interests include fisheries management, biological diversity, introduced species, regulation of polluting industries, and marine policy. Costello frequently collaborates with researchers outside of economics such as statistics, ecology, biogeography, and mathematics.

Curriculum Vitae

Mailing Address:
Donald 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 expects to earn his PhD in 2008. He has taught at Williams College and currently holds a post-doctoral research position with the Natural Capital Project at Stanford.

Chris Guo (2010)
Chris is currently working on assessing the impacts of climate change to the forestry sector. He expects to earn his PhD in 2010.

Professional Involvement

Co-Editor Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. July 2007-Present.

Member of Marine Life Protection Act Science Advisory Team. 2007-Present.

Member of California Current Ecosystem Based Management Initiative Science Advisory Team. 2007-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.

Baja Biocomplexity:
With US and Mexican colleagues, Costello studies the socioeconomic consequences of locally managed fisheries on the Pacific side of Baja California, Mexico.

Alaska Salmon Program:
Costello contributes economics expertise to the University of Washington’s program dedicated to science and management of Alaska salmon.

Flow, Fish and Fishing:
An interdisciplinary team at UCSB models complex spatial and temporal dynamics of nearshore fish species and their management, including marine protected areas.

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

Journal Publications

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

Optimal harvesting of stochastic spatial resources. (with S. Polasky). Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 56: 1-18. 2008.

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

Improving efficiency by assigning harvest rights to fishery cooperatives: evidence from the Chignik Salmon Co-op (with R. Deacon and N. Parker). Arizona Law Review. 50(2): 479-509. 2008.

Connectivity among nearshore marine ecosystems: the stochastic nature of larval transport. (with S. Mitarai, D. Siegel, B. Kendall, S. Gaines. and R. Warner) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105: 8974-8979. 2008.

Marine reserve effects on fishery profit (with C. White, B. Kendall, S. Gaines, D. Siegel). Ecology Letters. 11(4): 370-379. 2008.

Efficiency gains from fully delineating rights in an ITQ fishery (with R. Deacon). Marine Resource Economics.. 22: 347-361. 2007.

Unintended biological invasions: Does risk vary by trading partner? (with M. Springborn, A. Solow, and C. McAusland) Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 54(3) 262-276. 2007.

Search, bioprospecting, and biodiversity conservation (with Michael Ward). Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 52(3): 615-626. 2007.

Evaluating an invasive species policy: ballast water exchange in the Great Lakes (with John Drake and David Lodge). Ecological Applications. 17(3):655-662. 2006.

Enforcing emissions trading when emissions permits are bankable (with J. Stranlund and C. Chavez). Journal of Regulatory Economics. 28(2): 181-204.

Efficient conservation in a utility maximization framework (with F. Davis and D. Stoms). Ecology and Society. Forthcoming.

Review of: The Wealth of Nature: How Mainstream Economics has Failed the Environment. Journal of Economic Literature. 43(1): 194

Fishery management under multiple uncertainty (with G. Sethi, A. Fisher, M. Hanemann, and L. Karp). Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 50(2):300-318.

Dynamic Quotas with Learning (with Larry Karp). Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. 28: 1661-1680. 2004.

Dynamic Reserve Site Selection (with Steve Polasky). Resource and Energy Economics. 26: 157-174. 2004.

Avoiding invasives: trade related policies for controlling unintentional exotic species introductions (with Carol McAusland). 2004. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 48: 954-977. 2004.

On trade, land use, and biodiversity (with Steve Polasky and Carol McAusland). 2004. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 48: 911-925. 2004.

Estimating the rate of species introductions from the discovery record (with Andrew Solow). Ecology. 85: 1822-1825. 2004.

The Economics of Biodiversity (with Steve Polasky and Andrew Solow). in "Handbook of Environmental Economics". Edited by KG Maler and J. Vincent. North Holland, Amsterdam. 2004.

Protectionism, Trade, and Measures of Damage from Exotic Species Introductions (with Carol McAusland). 2003. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 85(4): 964-975.

On the pattern of discovery of introduced species (with Andy Solow). 2003. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100(6): 3321-3323.

Dynamic Environmental Policy with Strategic Firms: Prices vs. Quantities (with Jay Coggins, Amyaz Moledina, and Steve Polasky). 2003. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 45: 356-376.

Poverty and Employment in Forest-dependent Counties (with Peter Berck, Louise Fortmann, and Sandra Hoffmann). 2003. Forest Science. 49(5): 763-777.

Testing the power law model for discrete size data (with Andy Solow and Michael Ward). 2003. The American Naturalist. 162(5): 685-689.

Renewable resource management with environmental prediction. (with Steve Polasky and Andy Solow). Canadian Journal of Economics. 34(1): 196-211. 2001.

A test for declining diversity. (with Andy Solow). Ecology. 82(8): 2370-2372. 2001.

On an early result on stability and complexity (with Andy Solow and Andy Beet). American Naturalist. 154(5): 587-588. 1999.

The value of El Nino forecasts in the management of salmon: a stochastic dynamic assessment. (with Rich Adams and Steve Polasky). American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 80:765-777. 1998.