FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Dietrich Earnhart
The Economic Department’s own Dr. Dietrich Earnhart remains a nationally acknowledged expert on environmental economics.
Given the extent to which interest in environmental economics has increased in recent years, KU has had a front-row seat at the table in the important ongoing dialogue as a result of insights contributed by Professor Dietrich Earnhart. A national authority on environmental economics, Dr. Earnhart, who currently serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Chair in the Economics Department and Director of the KU Center for Environmental Policy, brings a unique expertise in the intersection of economics and the law that is especially relevant for determining key public policy implications associated with critical environmental matters.
His most recent publication (“Adapting to Water Restrictions: Intensive versus Extensive Adaptation over Time Differentiated by Water Right Seniority,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, with Nathan Hendricks) analyzed irrigation and how farmers adjusted water use when faced with restrictions, examining adaptation over time. The study examines a groundwater use control area established in 1992 by the Kansas Department of Agriculture that allocated permission to extract water in 5-year allotments, with the stringency of restrictions depending on the seniority of water rights. The findings as to how farmers ultimately adjusted their irrigation behavior have many important implications for understanding the welfare impacts of water restrictions.
Dr. Earnhart’s most recent projects include research on how the deterrence effect of regulatory enforcement differs between private versus public facilities (with Sarah Jacobson); the effects of peers’ environmental performance on a regulated facility’s compliance with the Clean Water Act (with Lana Friesen); the effect of local community pressure on environmental performance (with Donna Ramirez Harrington); and on the joint use of firm and employee sanctions imposed in response to environmental offenses (with Sandra Rousseau).
As part of his service, since 2018, as Director for the Economics Department’s Center for Undergraduate Research, he also has mentored many outstanding undergraduate students. Two of his current ongoing collaborative research projects involving undergraduates examine regulatory agency decisions to conduct environmental inspections and the role of environmental justice (with Alison Payne); and a fascinating analysis on the extent to which food waste generated by restaurant customers depends on the number of customers eating together (with Irene Caracioni).
Dr. Earnhart says the worsening climate crisis has strongly expanded the interest in environmental economics at an accelerating pace over recent years. He adds that “environmental issues are very high on the agenda at virtually all levels of government today, something not seen a decade or more ago.”