Position

Contact

Research Award

                       Earth Systems, NASA
     
Profile:

I am a natural resource economist who specializes in the study of global warming. I was born in a remote rural village in South Korea in 1972 and flew over the Pacific Ocean in July 2000 to study for a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley and eventually received a PhD degree in Environmental and Resource Economics from Yale University in May 2006 with a dissertation on behavioral models of global warming. While at Yale, I had the great honor to learn from Robert Mendelsohn and William Nordhaus on the economics of global warming. Since 2003, I have worked with the World Bank on various climate change projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. At present, I am working with the University of Sydney as a Senior Researcher (eqiv. to Associate Professor in the US) at the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment. I held Professor positions in Scotland and in Spain in the past. 


Research

I study economics of global warming, a global stock public good. I started my academic career by being concerned about low-latitude developing countries believed to be the most vulnerable regions of the world under global warming. From the island of Sri Lanka, I have grown my research interests to Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania. With Yale University and the World Bank, I have been involved in measuring the impacts of climate change on agriculture and quantifying adaptation behaviors in these regions. I have examined detailed portfolios of animal species, crops, and forest products owned by the farmers in the low-latitude developing countries for the past 10 years.

  One of my academic achievements has been the development of behavioral models to quantify adaptation strategies to climate change. The model, named as a G-MAP model (a Geographically scaled Micro-econometric model of Adapting Portfolios in response to climate change), provides a methodology that explicitly quantifies the impacts of climate change and adaptation strategies simultaneously (Yale 2006, AEPP 2010, PIRS 2012, WCAS 2012). The G-MAP model aims to provide a guide map of adaptations in the natural resources sectors such as agriculture, animal husbandry, and forestry.

 At the global level, I endeavor to contribute to global climate policy discussions. I have been developing a policy framework which can account for disparate incentives of different regions of the world in the global negotiation processes and can be applied effectively at the national level at the same time. I study alternative conceptual and policy proposals as well as practical progresses.   


Awards/Honors

I received several academic honors including a Chancellor's Honor upon graduation from Seoul National University in 2000 and a President Fellowship for public service from Yale University in 2002. I received a full fellowship from Seoul National University for the undergraduate study and from Yale University for the PhD program. I was awarded an Outstanding Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy Article Award from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) in June 2011 for developing the G-MAP model of adaptations to climate change. I am listed as a climate economist by the Marquis Who's Who in the World, an America's biographer.

 I am on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy journal of the AAEA since January 2012. I frequently serve as a journal referee for about two dozen scientific journals in various academic fields including Climatic Change, Climate Change Economics, Ecological Economics, Papers in Regional Science, and Environment and Development Economics. I have advised on climate change programs various organizations including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the French National Research Agency (ANR), the South Asian Network for Developmental and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), and the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) in Belgium. 



Research Centers and Researchers
                                       

ProcisurCEEPAIICA, ADB 
                      
 
 
 
Professional Affiliations
 
I am a member of the International Society for Ecological Economists (ISEE), the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), and the Regional Science Association International (RSAI).

Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
                                
International Society for Ecological Economics

Regional Science Association International 
 
 


 

Major Presentations
 

International Summit on Hurricanes and Climate Change, Kos, Greece. June 2013. 

Workshop for Tropical Cyclone Study, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University. Apr 2013, New Haven, CT.

Africa Post-harvest Program. AAA (Australia Awards Africa) Project, Sept 2012, Sydney, Australia.

Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, June 2011, Pittsburgh, PA.

Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, 2011, World Bank, Washington DC, USA.

The University of Sydney, 2009, Sydney Australia.
 
World Bank, 2009, Washington DC, USA
 
IFPRI, 2009, Washington DC, USA
 
ADB, 2009, Manila, the Philippines

GRIPS, 2009, Tokyo, Japan.
 
CGIAR, 2008, Brasilia, Brazil
 
ILRI, 2008,  Kenya, Africa
 
PROCANDINO, 2007, Bogota, Colombia

KEI 2006, Seoul, Korea
 
PROCISUR/IICA, 2004, 2005, 2006, Montevideo, Uruguay
 
 

In Media 
 
 
Outstanding Article Award, Staff News, The University of Sydney, July 28, 2011. 

GR2: A Green Resoultion, A Centenary Magazine of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources. June 2010. The University of Sydney.
 
Mixed crop-livestock farming could help adaptation in Africa. March 2010. European Commission News Service: Science for Environment Policy
 
Climate Change: Likely Impacts on African Crops, Livestock, and Farm Types. June 2008. Research At the World Bank
 
Beat the Heat. Winter Issue 2008. Americas Quarterly
 
 
Journal articles 
 
 
2013

-Seo, S.N. 2013. Refining spatial resolution and spillovers of a microeconometric model of adapting portfolios to climate change. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. doi:10.1111/j.1435-5957.2012.00435.x.
 
-Seo, S. N. 2013. Economics of global warming as a global public good: Private incentives and smart adaptations. Regional Science Policy and Practice 5: 83-95. (Regional Science Association International)
 
 
2012

-Seo, S. N. 2012. Decision making under climate risks: An analysis of sub-Saharan farmers' adaptation behaviors. Weather, Climate, and Society 4: 285-299. (American Meteorological Society) 

-Seo, S.N. 2012. Adaptation Behaviors across Ecosystems under Global Warming: A Spatial Micro-econometric Model of the Rural Economy in South America. Papers in Regional Science 
91: 147-171. (Regional Science Association International)

-Seo, S.N. 2012. Adapting Natural Resource Enterprises under Global Warming in South America: A Mixed Logit Analysis. Economia: Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association 
12: 111-135. (Brookings Institution Press)

-Seo, S.N. 2012. What Eludes International Agreements on Climate Change? The Economics of Global Public Goods. Economic Affairs 32: 74-80. Institute of Economic Affairs, London.

-Seo, S.N. 2012. Lessons for Temperature Limits from the US Debt Ceiling Debates. Economic Affairs 32: 75-77. Institute of Economic Affairs, London.

-Seo, S.N. 2012. An Analysis of the Choice of Livestock Species under Global Warming in African and Latin American Farms. In. A. Dinar and R. Mendelsohn (Eds.). Handbook of Climate Change and Agriculture. Edward Elgar.

2011

-Seo, S.N. and B. McCarl. 2011. Managing Livestock Species under Climate Change in Australia. Animals 1(4): 343-365. Special Issue on Livestock Management and Climate Change. 
[Read also the recent version: Seo, S.N. 2013 Animals and Ecosystems under Climatic Changes in Australia. SSRN]

-Seo, S.N. 2011. Planning the Green Climate Fund so it works for African Farmers. The Conversation. Dec 14th, 2011 (Column).

-Seo, S.N. 2011. Debt Limits and Temperature Ceilings. Institute of Economic Affaris, London. Oct 16, 2011. (Column)
 
-Seo, S.N. 2011. A Geographically Scaled Analysis of Adaptation to Climate Change with Spatial Models using Agricultural Systems in Africa. The Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge University, 149: 437-449. (Special Issue on Climate Change)
 
-Seo, S.N. 2011. The Impacts of Climate Change on Australia and New Zealand: A Gross Cell Product Analysis by Land Cover. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 55: 220-239. (Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society)
 

-Seo, S.N. 2011. Is an Integrated Farm More Resilient Against Climate Change?: A Micro-econometric Analysis of Portfolio Diversification in African Agriculture: Reply. Food Policy 36: 145-146.

 
-Seo, S.N. 2011. An Analysis of Public Adaptation to Climate Change using Agricultural Water Schemes in South America. Ecological Economics 70: 825-834. (International Society for Ecological Economics)


2010  
 
-Seo, S.N., B. McCarl, and R. Mendelsohn. 2010. From Beef Cattle to Sheep under Global Warming? An Analysis of Adaptation by Livestock Species Choice in South America. Ecological Economics 69: 2486-2494. (International Society for Ecological Economics)
 

-Seo, S.N. 2010. A Microeconometric Analysis of Adapting Portfolios to Climate Change: Adoption of Agricultural Systems in Latin America. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 32: 489-514. (Agricultural and Applied Economics Association)

 

 -Seo, S.N. 2010. Managing Forests, Livestock, and Crops under Global Warming: A Micro-econometric Analysis of Land Use Changes in Africa. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 54 (2): 239-258. Special Issue on Climate Change. (Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society)

 

-Seo, S.N. 2010. Keys to Economics of Global Warming: A Critique of the Dismal Theorem. Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(1): 130-138.
 

-Seo, S.N. 2010. Is an Integrated Farm More Resilient Against Climate Change?: A Micro-econometric Analysis of Portfolio Diversification in African Agriculture. Food Policy 35: 32-40.

 
2009
 
-Seo, S.N. 2009. Designing a Climate Policy: A Carbon Tax Approach with Adaptation Funds. Eergy and Environment 20(6): 961-966.
 
-Seo, S.N., R. Mendelsohn, A. Dinar, R. Hassan, and P. Kurukulasuriya. 2009. A Ricardian Analysis of the Distribution of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture across Agro-Ecological Zones in Africa. Environmental and Resource Economics 43(3): 313-332. Frontiers in the Economics of Climate Change. (European Association of Environmental Economics)

-Seo, S.N., R. Mendelsohn, A. Dinar, and P. Kurukulasuriya. 2009. Adapting to Climate Change Mosaically: An Analysis of African Livestock Management across Agro-Ecological Zones. 
The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and PolicyVol. 9, Iss. 2, Article 4. Special Issue on Economic Geography.
 
- Seo, S.N. 2008. Assessing Relative Performance of Econometric Models in Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture using Spatial Autoregression. The Review of Regional Studies 38(2): 195-209. (Southern Regional Science Association)
 
2008
 
-Seo, S. N. and R. Mendelsohn. 2008. Measuring Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change: A Structural Ricardian Model of African Livestock Management. Agricultural Economics 38 (2):151-165. (International Association for Agricultural Economists) DOI=10.1111/j.1574-0862.2007.00289.

-Seo, S. N. and R. Mendelsohn. 2008. An Analysis of Crop Choice: Adapting to Climate Change in South American Farms.
Ecological Economics 67:109-116. (International Society for Ecological Economics)

-Seo, S. N., and R. Mendelsohn. 2008. Animal Husbandry in Africa: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations. 
African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 2: 65-82. (African Association of Agricultural Economists)

-Seo, S. N., and R. Mendelsohn. 2008. A Ricardian Analysis of The Impact of Climate Change Impacts on South American Farms. 
Chilean Journal of Agricultural Research 68:69-79.

2005-2007

-Seo, S. N. 2007. Is Stern Review on Climate Change Alarmist? Energy and Environment 18(5): 521-532.

-Kurukulasuriya, P., R. Mendelsohn, R. Hassan, S. N. Seo, A. Dinar, et al. 2006. Will African Agriculture Survive Climate Change? 
World Bank Economic Review 20(3):367-388.

-Seo, S. N., R. Mendelsohn, and M. Munasinghe. 2005. Climate Change and Agriculture in Sri Lanka: A Ricardian Valuation. 
Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press 10(5):581-196.

Books

-Seo, S.N. 2006. Modeling Farmer Responses to Climate Change: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations in Livestock Management in Africa. Yale University. p218. (AAT 3214297).