A Montana State University researcher will discuss recent developments in how the federal government incorporates mortality and climate change impacts into its analysis of environmental policies.
Richard Ready, professor of economics in the MSU Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics in the College of Agriculture and College of Letters and Science, will deliver “The Two Most Important Numbers for Environmental Policy Analysis: The Social Cost of Carbon and the Value of a Statistical Life” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, in MSU’s Procrastinator Theater. Light refreshments will be served prior to the talk. The event is free and open to the public as part of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems’ Distinguished Lecturer Series.
Ready’s research explores how people benefit from, and value, the services provided by ecosystems. His research topics have included environmental health, climate change, invasive species, landscape change and outdoor recreation. Ready’s research has been published in numerous academic journals and books and has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture and several state agencies. From 2013 until it was disbanded in 2018, he served on the EPA Science Advisory Board’s Environmental Economics Advisory Committee. Ready has a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources from Cornell University and master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.