My research agenda covers several topics at the heart of environmental economics: public good provision, natural capital, natural disasters, and air pollution. I have explored the issue of environmental public good provision in the context of carbon offsets, charitable giving to conservation organizations, green-energy programs, and payment-for-ecosystem services programs. The focal areas of my current research agenda are: 1) the causes and implications of fat-tailed damages from tropical cyclones for policy-makers, insurers, and households 2) conservation procurement auction design and resulting bidder behavior in payment for ecosystem services programs 3) accurate measurement of the social cost of carbon with a focus on inclusion of the costs of climate-driven damages to natural capital, with impacts on ecosystem service provision and biodiversity. I pursue these issues using tools from applied microeconomics and experimental economics in collaboration with other economists and natural scientists in order to best appreciate the fundamental aspects of each issue.
Journal Articles
Conte, M.N. et al. 2022. A Framework for Evaluating Mechanisms to Support Seasonal Migratory Species. Forthcoming in Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. (draft version)
Moore, F.C., A. Stokes, X. Dong, and M.N. Conte. 2022. Noah’s Ark in a Warming World: Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Public Adaptation Costs in the United States. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 9(5): 981-1015. (official journal site)
Moore, F.C., A. Stokes, X. Dong, and M.N. Conte. 2022. Noah’s Ark in a Warming World: Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Public Adaptation Costs in the United States. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 9(5): 981-1015. (official journal site)
Conte, M.N. and D. Kelly. 2021. Understanding the Improbable: A Survey of Fat Tails in Environmental Economics. Annual Review of Resource Economics 13: 289-310. (official journal site)
Swinehart, S., R. Fuller, R. Kupka, and M.N. Conte. 2019. Rethinking Aid Allocation: Analysis of Official Development Spending on Modern Pollution Reduction. Annals of Global Health 85(1): 132-143. (official journal site)
Conte, Marc N. and Robert M. Griffin. 2019. Private Benefits of Conservation and Procurement Auction Performance. Environmental and Resource Economics 73(3): 759-790. (official journal site)
Banerjee, Simanti and Marc N. Conte. 2018. Information Access, Conservation Practice Choice, and Rent Seeking in Conservation Procurement Auctions: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 100(5): 1407-1426. (official journal site)
Conte, Marc N. and David L. Kelly. 2018. An Imperfect Storm: FEMA, Private Climate Insurers, and Climate Change. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 92: 677-706. (official journal site)
Conte, Marc N. and Philip Shaw. 2018. District Subdivision and the Location of Smallholder Forest Conversion in Sumatra. Land Economics 94(3): 437-458. (official journal site)
Conte, Marc N. and Robert M. Griffin. 2017. Quality Information and Procurement Auction Outcomes: Evidence from a Payment for Ecosystem Services Laboratory Experiment. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 99(3): 571-591. (official journal site)
Conte, Marc N. and Grant D. Jacobsen. 2016. Explaining Demand for Green Electricity Using Data from All U.S. Utilities. Energy Economics 60: 122-130. (official journal site)
Ma, Shan, et al. 2016. Valuation of Ecosystem Services to Inform Management of Multiple-Use Landscapes. Ecosystem Services 19: 6-18. (official journal site)
Bhagabati, Nirmal K., et al. 2014. Ecosystem services reinforce Sumatran tiger conservation in land use plans. Biological Conservation 169: 147-156. (official journal site)
Tallis, H., et al. 2012. New Metrics for Managing and Sustaining the Ocean’s Bounty. Marine Policy 36(1): 303-306. (official journal site)
Conte, Marc N. and Matthew J. Kotchen. 2010. Explaining the Price of Voluntary Carbon Offsets. Climate Change Economics 1(2): 19-38. (NBER Working Paper 15294). (official journal site)
Nelson, Erik J., et al. 2010. Projecting Global Land-Use Change and its Effect on Ecosystem Service Provision and Biodiversity with Simple Models. PLoS ONE 5(12): 1-22. (official journal site)
Selected Book Chapters
Bakkensen, L. and M.N. Conte. 2022. Risk Preferences and Natural Disasters: A Review of Theoretical and Empirical Themes. Handbook on Economics of Natural Disasters, edited by M. Skidmore. Edward Elgar. (draft version)
Conte, M.N. Valuing Ecosystem Services. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 2nd Edition, edited by S. Levin. Princeton University Press. (pre-print)