Dr S Niggol Seo
Summary
I am a resource economist who specialises in global warming. I am concerned about this global problem, and in support of managing greenhouse gas emissions over time by a globally harmonized carbon tax and of supporting vulnerable communities and individuals to adapt to climate change.
Research interests
I contribute to the economics of global warming, a global stock public good. I started my academic career by being concerned about the most vulnerable regions of the world, i.e. low-latitude developing countries. From Sri Lanka, I expanded my focal areas over time to Africa, Latin America, and Asia. With the World Bank and Yale University, I have been involved in measuring the impacts of climate change and quantifying adaptation behaviors in these regions.
I spent a decade in developing behavioral models to quantify adaptations to climate change. A new micro-econometric method enables researchers to measure explicitly climate change impacts and endogenous adaptations simultaneously. The method, called G-MAP (Geographically scaled Microeconometric analysis of Adapting Portfolios in response to climate change), aims to provide a guide map of adaptations.
I have published a series of papers on animal husbandry in Africa, an area that is often overlooked by even agricultural researchers. My papers shed lights on how livestock species are raised and agricultural systems are adopted as climate condition varies in the continent where crops frequently fail.
I write on the design, negotiation, and implementation of a global climate policy and contribute policy relevant articles. I have been developing climate policy global dynamic models.
Background
Born in South Korea, I received a PhD degree from Yale University majoring in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics with a focus on global warming. I had the great honor of learning personally from William Nordhaus and Robert Mendelsohn on the economics of climate change. Since 2003, I have been working with the World Bank on various climate change projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Currently, I am a Senior Fellow in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources at the University of Sydney in Australia. I am a member of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) and of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES).
Recent publications
- Seo, S.N., 2010, “Managing Forests, Livestock, Crops under Global Warming: A Micro-econometric Analysis of Land Use in Africa”, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 54: 239-258.
- 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.
- Seo, S.N., 2010, “Keys to Economics of Global Warming: A Critique of the Dismal Theorem”, Economics Bulletin 30 (1): 130-138.
- 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.
- 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 BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, Volume 9, Issue 2, Article 4.
- 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.
- 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.
- Seo, S. N. 2007, “Is Stern Review on Climate Change Alarmist?”, Energy and Environment 18(5): 521-532.
- Seo, S. N., R. Mendelsohn, and M. Munasinghe 2005, “Climate Change and Agriculture in Sri Lanka: A Ricardian Valuation”, Environment and Development Economics 10(5):581-196.
- Seo, S.N. 2006. Modeling Farmer Responses to Climate Change: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations in Livestock Management in Africa. Yale University. p218.