Essays in the Economics of Wildfire

ABSTRACT

This dissertation explores the economic consequences of wildfire and smoke in the United States. The third chapter, Wildfire smoke in the United States, examines regional and temporal trends in wildfire smoke impacts. It synthesizes research on health, economic, and behavioral impacts, proposing modifications to federal air quality regulations to address wildfire smoke. The second chapter, Wildfire, smoke, and outdoor recreation in the western United States, focuses on the effects of wildfire and smoke for outdoor recreation. The paper combines millions of administrative campground reservation records with daily satellite data on wildfire, smoke, and air pollution, finding that more than ten percent of available recreation days are affected by severe smoke in some regions. The first chapter, Non-market damages of wildfire smoke: evidence from administrative recreation data, exploits the dataset of the second chapter to provide among the first revealed preference estimates of smoke damages. A structural model of sequential recreation decisions finds that smoke reduces welfare by $107 per person per trip. Annually, more than 21.5 million outdoor visits in the western United States are affected by wildfire smoke, with welfare losses of $2.3 billion. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence on the costs of wildfire smoke.

BIO

Jacob Gellman is a PhD candidate in Economics and Environmental Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the economics of wildfire, land use, and housing. During his PhD he has worked on interdisciplinary wildfire issues at the Earth Research Institute with economists, ecologists, meteorologists, and other natural scientists. In teaching roles he enjoys working with students on coding, research projects, and professional development. Prior to his graduate studies he worked as an energy economics consultant, where he advised utilities and tribes on energy decisions and produced expert witness testimony for legal cases. He previously taught English in the French school system for students aged 13 to 15. Jacob holds a BA in Economics with a minor in French from the University of Puget Sound. Personal interests include guitar, French, punk, new wave, art, hiking, and basketball.