Matthew J. Kotchen

Matthew J. Kotchen

Bren School of Environmental Science & Management

and Department of Economics

4420 Donald Bren Hall

University of California

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Email: kotchen@bren.ucsb.edu

Tel: (805) 893-8668

Fax: (805) 893-7612

Curriculum Vitae in pdf format.

Biography

Matthew Kotchen is an assistant professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also holds an affiliated appointment in the Department of Economics at UCSB and is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. Kotchen held a previous position in the Department of Economics at Williams College. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan, where he also earned an MS in Resource Policy and Behavior from the School of Natural Resources & Environment. He also holds an MS from the University of Maine and a BA from the University of Vermont.

Currently on leave: Kotchen is a visiting scholar at Resources for Future in Washington, DC for the summer of 2008. He is also visiting the Department of Economics at Stanford University and the University of California Energy Institute (UCEI) in Berkeley, CA for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Research Statement in pdf format.

Links

Selected Publications

What Would Environmentalists Do with ANWR? Op-Ed in The San Diego Union-Tribune, July 18, 2008.

Voluntary Provision of Public Goods for Bads: A Theory of Environmental Offsets, The Economic Journal, forthcoming. [NBER working paper W13643]

The Effect of Geomorphic Channel Restoration on Streamflow and Groundwater in a Snow-Melt Dominated Watershed, Water Resources Research, forthcoming, with C. Tague and S. Valentine.

How Reef Structure Regulates Small Scale Variation in Coral Bleaching, Marine Ecology Progress Series, forthcoming, with H. Lenihan, M. Adjeroud, J. Hench, and T. Nakamura.

Review of Our Precarious Habitat, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 299 (2008) 581-582.

Equilibrium Existence and Uniqueness in Impure Public Good Models, Economics Letters, 97 (2007) 91-96.

An Economics Perspective on Treating Voluntary Programs as Clubs, in Voluntary Programs: A Club Theory Perspective, Potoski and Prakash (eds.), MIT Press, forthcoming, with K. van 't Veld.

Conservation: From Voluntary Restraint to a Voluntary Price Premium, Environmental and Resource Economics, 40 (2008) 195-215, with M. R. Moore. [NBER working paper W13678]

Should We Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? An Economic Perspective, Energy Policy, 35 (2007) 4720-4729, with N. E. Burger. [NBER working paper W13211]

Private Provision of Environmental Public Goods: Household Participation in Green-Electricity Programs, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 53 (2007) 1-16, with M. R. Moore.

Relating Environmental Attitudes and Contingent Values: How Robust Are Methods for Identifying Preference Heterogeneity? Environmental and Resource Economics, 37 (2007) 757-775, with G. Aldrich, K. Grimsrud, and J. Thacher.

Meeting the Challenges of the Anthropocene: Toward a Science of Coupled Human-Biophysical Systems, Global Environmental Change, 17 (2007) 149-151, with O. R. Young.

Green Markets and Private Provision of Public Goods, Journal of Political Economy, 114 (2006) 816-834.

Explaining the Appearance and Success of Voter Referenda for Open-Space Conservation, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 52 (2006) 373-390, with S. M. Powers.

Environmental Constraints on Hydropower: An Ex-Post Benefit-Cost Analysis of Dam Relicensing in Michigan, Land Economics, 82 (2006) 389-403, with M. R. Moore, F. Lupi, and E. Rutherford.

Impure Public Goods and the Comparative Statics of Environmentally Friendly Consumption, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 49 (2005) 281-300.

Internal and External Influences on Pro-Environmental Behavior: Participation in a Green Electricity Program, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23 (2003) 237-46, with C. F. Clark and M. R. Moore.

Environmental Voluntary Contracts Between Individuals and Industry: An Analysis of Consumer Preferences for Green Electricity, in Environmental Voluntary Contracts: Comparative Approaches to Regulation Innovation in the United States and Europe, E. Orts and K. Deketelaere (eds.), London: Kluwer Law International (2001) 409-23, with M. R. Moore and C. F. Clark.

Environmental Attitudes, Motivations, and Contingent Valuation of Nonuse Values: A Case Study Involving Endangered Species, Ecological Economics, 32 (2000) 93-107, with S. D. Reiling.

Do Reminders of Budget Constraints and Substitutes Influence Contingent Valuation Estimates? Another Comment, Land Economics, 75 (1999) 478-82, with S. D. Reiling.

Incorporating Resistance in Pesticide Management: A Dynamic Regional Approach, in Regional Sustainability: Applied Ecological Economics Bridging the Gap Between Natural and Social Sciences, I. Ring, B. Klauer, F. Watzold, and B. Mansson (eds.), New York: Springer Verlag (1999) 126-35.

Estimating and Questioning Economic Values for Endangered Species: An Application and Discussion, Endangered Species Update, 15:5 (1998) 9-15, with S. D. Reiling.

Working Papers

Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Indiana, with L. E. Grant, 2008.

An Economics Perspective on the Market for Voluntary Carbon Offsets, 2008.
Slides from presentation at the Federal Trade Commission.

Corporate Social Responsibility for Irresponsibility, with J. J. Moon, 2007.

Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater: Behavior, Preferences, and Willingness to Pay for a Disposal Program, with Kallaos, Wheeler, Wong, Zahller, 2008, revised and resubmitted at the Journal of Environmental Management.

Grades, Course Evaluations, and Academic Incentives, with D. A. Love, 2008.

Selected Media Coverage

Daylight Saving Time: [Video] CBS Sunday Morning; ABC News 20/20; NBC Universal; The Today Show (I); The Today Show (II). [Radio] NPR’s All Things Considered; Chicago Public Radio. [Print] Wall Street Journal; New York Times; USA Today; Associated Press; Yahoo! News; Indianapolis Star; Philadelphia Inquire; Toronto Star; National Geographic.

Voluntary Carbon Offsets: [Video] Energy Policy TV. [Print] The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond: Region Focus; The Katoomba Group’s Ecosystem Marketplace (reprinted in numerous outlets).