Saturday, October 25:
8:00 – 8:20 Registration, check-in, and light breakfast (pastries, fruits, coffee, tea, and juice) at Illini Union 200 Ballroom
8:20 – 8:30 Welcome
8:30 – 10:10 First Session: Biodiversity & Conservation
“The Efficacy of Conservation Expenditures: Evidence from Local Ballot Measures”
Eyal Frank (University of Chicago)
“Do Birds Help or Hurt Row Crop Yields? Plot-Level Evidence from Seed Trials”
Chen-Ti Chen (The Ohio State University)
“The impact of wildfire smoke on local avian biodiversity”
Sarah Meier (University of Exeter)
“Charred Forests: Links Between Community Forests and Forest Fires in Nepal”
Karan Shakya (Kenyon College)
10:10 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 11:30 Second Session: Short talks on:
“How Price-Fluid are Utility Customers in the Short- and Long-Run? An Application to Urban Water Demand”
James Sears (Michigan State University)
“When Trade Dries Up: Infrastructure Constraints and Firm Performance”
Nora Pankratz (University of Toronto)
“Pollution, Population, and Production: A Structural Analysis of Wildfire Smoke and Spatial Sorting”
Jasdeep Mandia (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
“Impact of sea level rise on aviation infrastructure in the United States”
Jason Wong (Babson College)
“The Impact of the Energy Transition on Local Mortality”
Jancy Ling Liu (The College of Wooster)
“The Environmental Implications of Place-Based Policy: Evidence from Minimum Wage Ordinances”
Luorao Bian (University of California, Santa Barbara)
11:30 – 1:00 Luncheon and Keynote Talk: Bruce A. McCarl (Texas A&M University)
“Climate Change – What Do We Do About It? Explorations on Agricultural Adaptation” (Slides here)
1:00 – 1:20 Break
1:20 – 3:00 Third Session: Agriculture and The Environment
“Evaluating the Impacts of Changing Global Conditions on Regional Sustainability: A Dynamic Integrated Assessment Framework of the Great Lakes-Cornbelt Region”
Junyoung Jeong (Purdue University)
“Can Farmer-Led Initiatives Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution?”
Nicole Karwowski (Montana State University)
“Land Markets as Climate Adaptation: Evidence from Minnesota and Wisconsin Farmland Transactions”
Joel Ferguson (University of Wisconsin – Madison)
“Costs of Climate Adaptation: Evidence from French Agriculture”
Tristan du Puy (Columbia University)
3:00 – 3:20 Break
3:20 – 5:00 Fourth Session: Regulation & Innovation
“Innovation, Environmental Externalities and Optimal Regulation”
Clark Lundberg (San Diego State University)
“Political Incentives and Environmental Regulation”
Saad Gulzar (Notre Dame University)
“Do EV Adoption Policies Drive Innovation in Energy Storage Technologies? Evidence from the Chinese Market.”
Itzi Lazkano (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
“Two Centuries of U.S. Innovation: Firms’ Internal Networks and Resilience to Disasters”
Sumudu Watugala (Indiana University)
5:00 – 7:00 Reception with Posters (finger food and bar) ( Posters listed below)
7:30 Dinner at Writer’s Room (210 S Race St, Urbana, IL 61801)
Sunday October 26
8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast
8:30 – 10:10 Fifth Session: Natural Disasters
“Drought and Investment in Electricity Markets”
Lena Harris (Texas A&M)
“Load it Up: Natural Disasters, Economies of Scale, and Variety Loss in Ground Freight Transportation”
Gustavo Nino (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
“Levees and levies: Local financing of climate infrastructure maintenance and housing market dynamics”
Yichun Fan (Duke University)
“Measuring flood exposure: A comparison of methods and application to Nigeria”
Elena Stacy (University of California, Berkeley)
10:10 – 10:30 Break
10:30 – 11:30 Sixth Session: Short talks on
“Steering Adaptation: Heat, Driver Performance, and Cost-Sharing in the Heavy-Duty Transportation Industry”
Zhenxuan Wang (NC State University)
“Can Place-Based Incentives Accelerate the Energy Transition? Evidence from the IRA’s Energy Community Tax Credits”
Xiaochen Sun (New Mexico State University)
“Paying at the Pump and the Ballot Box: Electoral Penalties of Motor Fuels Taxes”
Andrew Waxman (The University of Texas at Austin)
“Willingness to Pay for Water Quality Improvements to a Recreational Reservoir.”
Adrienne Ohler (University of Missouri)
“Distributional impacts of updating flood risk information”
Jesse Gourevitch (Environmental Defense Fund)
“Ramping Up Emissions? The Implications of Intermittent Renewables for Thermal Power Plant Pollution”
Khyati Malik (National Bureau of Economic Research)
11:30 – 1:00 Luncheon and Panel Discussion: “Climate and natural disasters”
- Laura Bakkensen, University of Oregon
- Atul K. Jain, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Mark Skidmore, Michigan State University
1:20 – 3:00 Seventh Session: Environment & Human Capital
“The Freezing Point of History: Extreme Temperatures Hinder Elite Emergence”
Mitch Downey (Stockholm University)
“Natural Capital and Human Welfare: The Social Impacts of Mangrove Loss in Indonesia”
James Ji (University of Florida)
“Miners and Minors: The Impact of Mineral Resource Booms on Female Underage Employment”
Sayahnika Basu (James Madison University)
“Quantifying the contributions of climate change and adaptation to mortality from unprecedented extreme heat events”
Christopher Callahan (Indiana University)
3:00 – 4:00 Break and Snacks for the Road
Selected Posters on Display at Heartland 2025
“Assessing the Impact of PFAS Water Regulation”
Laura Alcocer Quinones (University of California, Davis)
“Can Biopesticides and Natural Enemies Reduce Pesticide Use Without Harming Farmers’ Profits? A Bioeconomic Analysis”
Cheng Bi (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
“Baseline Attitudes and Effectiveness of Information Treatments: A Mixed Experimental Study of Support for Agrivoltaics”
Jian Chen (Iowa State University)
“Optimal Phosphorus Management in a Transboundary Setting: A Dynamic Game Approach”
Chanheung Cho (North Carolina State University)
“Growers’ Willingness to Adopt Integrated Disease Management Strategies to Cope with Antibiotic Resistance”
Khashi Ghorbani (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
“Long-run Effects of Radiation Exposure on Mortality: Evidence from the U.S.”
Yuqing Han (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
“Measuring Extreme Weather and Its Effects on Agricultural Productivity in the United States”
Munib Inam (University of Kentucky)
“Health impacts of natural disasters”
Andrew Ireland (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
“The Economic Benefits of Water Rights Adjudication: Evidence from Agricultural Land Sales in Western States”
Ngoc Ha Do (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
“The Cochabamba Water War of 2000: Long-Term Impact on Water Access in Bolivia and Beyond”
Debra Israel (Indiana State University)
“Negative externalities of gold mining: Impact on malaria incidence in the Brazilian Amazon”
Roberto Hajime Sant Anna Kimura (The Ohio State University)
“Toxic Tradeoffs: Impact of Clean Air Act Regulations on Workplace Accidents”
Sanjukta Mitra (Iowa State University)
“The Importance of Earnings from Recycling”
Maya Norman (Columbia University)
“Farmer Willingness to Adopt Profit-Maximizing Phosphorus and Potassium Management Practices”
Menglin Liu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
“Benefits of Conservation Easements to Biodiversity: Evidence from Wetland Birds”
Anthony Ponce (Cornell University)
“Health Impacts of Transboundary Air Pollution: Evidence from the German-Polish Border”
Adrián Santonja (University of Potsdam & Berlin School of Economics)
“Air Pollution and Economic Activity: Evidence from Foot Traffic Patterns”
Xinhui Sun (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
“Managing Chronic Wasting Disease with Direct and Environmental Transmission in Greater Yellowstone Area Elk: A Perturbation Approach to Dynamic Optimization with Multiple State Variables”
Ziyue Tian (Michigan State University)
“Impact of Extreme Weather Events on the U.S. Domestic Supply Chain of Food Manufacturing”
Hyungsun Yim (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
“Social Returns to Conservation: EQIP, Cover Crops, and Water Quality in the Midwest”
Shuo Yu (University of California, Berkeley)
“Market and Environmental Impact of Reusable Products: An Application to the K-Cup Coffee System”
Rong Yuwen (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)