Assistant Professor, Public Policy
https://www.yusuke-kuwayama.com/
Education
Ph.D., Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S., Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A.B., Economics, Amherst College
Research and teaching interests
Environmental and natural resource economics
Water resource management
Integrated socio-environmental systems
Science policy
Biography
Dr. Yusuke Kuwayama is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) in Washington, DC. He is a Principal Investigator on a project supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) titled Advancing Integrated Process-Based Modeling of Complex Socio-Environmental Systems. He also currently serves as Director of the Consortium for the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Science (VALUABLES).
Dr. Kuwayama’s research focuses on the economics of water resource management. He strives to conduct economic analysis that leads to effective and efficient policy solutions for three major problems related to water quality and scarcity:
- Inefficient water use in the agricultural sector;
- Tradeoffs across economic and ecosystem uses of water; and
- Wastewater management.
The methods and techniques Dr. Kuwayama uses to address these issues depend on the specific research question, but usually consist of applied microeconomic theory, dynamic optimization, applied econometrics, and policy analysis.
Dr. Kuwayama is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to address questions involving sustainable use and management of coupled human-natural systems, especially work that requires modeling human decision-making, hydrologic and ecological processes, and the connections between them.
Courses taught
PUBL 604: Statistical Analysis
PUBL 608: Applied Multivariate Regression
ECON 405/605: Benefit-Cost Evaluation
Selected publications
Kuwayama, Y., S. Olmstead, and J. Zheng. 2022. A more comprehensive estimate of the value of water quality. Journal of Public Economics, 207, 104600.
Kroetz, K., Y. Kuwayama, and C. Vexler. 2020. The economics of the joint management of water resources and aquatic species in the United States. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 14(2), 194–215.
Stroming, S., M. Robertson, B. Mabee, Y. Kuwayama, and B. Schaeffer. Quantifying the human health benefits of using satellite information to detect cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms and manage recreational advisories in U.S. lakes. 2020. GeoHealth, 4(9), e2020GH000254.
Fitzgerald, T., Y. Kuwayama, S. Olmstead, and A. Thompson. 2020. Dynamic impacts of U.S. energy development on agricultural land use. Energy Policy, 137, 11163.
Kuwayama, Y., S. Olmstead, D. Wietelman, and J. Zheng. 2020. Trends in nutrient pollution as a source of potential water quality damages: A case study of Texas, USA. Science of the Total Environment, 724, 137962.
Walls, M., and Y. Kuwayama. 2019. Evaluating payments for forest watershed services programs in the United States. Water Economics and Policy, 5(4), 1950003.
Kuwayama, Y., A. Thompson, R. Bernknopf, B. Zaitchik, and P. Vail. 2019. Estimating the impact of drought on agriculture using the US Drought Monitor. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 101(1): 193-210.
Metson, G., S. M. Powers, R. L. Hale, J. Sayles, G. Öberg, G. K. MacDonald, Y. Kuwayama, N. Springer, A. Weatherley, K. L. Hondula, K. Jones, R. B. Chowdhury, A. H. W. Beusen, and A. F. Bouwman. 2018. Socio-environmental consideration of phosphorus flows in the urban sanitation chain of contrasting cities. Regional Environmental Change, 18(5): 1387-1401.
Epanchin-Niell, R., Y. Kuwayama, and M. Walls. 2017. Spatial-dynamic complexities of the climate challenge for rural areas: Integrating resource and regional economic insights. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 99(2): 447–463.
Bernknopf, R., D. Brookshire, Y. Kuwayama, M. Macauley, M. Rodell, A. Thompson, P. Vail, and B. Zaitchik. 2017. The value of remotely sensed information: The case of GRACE-enhanced drought severity index. Weather, Climate, and Society, 10(1): 187-203.
Kuwayama, Y., and N. Brozović. 2017. Optimal management of environmental externalities with time lags and uncertainty. Environmental and Resource Economics, 68(3): 473-499.
Kuwayama, Y., and H. Kamen. 2016. What drives the reuse of municipal wastewater? A county-level analysis of Florida. Land Economics, 92(4): 679–702.
Kuwayama, Y., and N. Brozović. 2013. The regulation of a spatially heterogeneous externality: Tradable groundwater permits to protect streams. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 66(2): 364–382.