Environmental and Resource Economics major

Why major in environmental and resource economics?

Our environment is filled with scarce and finite resources — including clean air and water, fertile land, critical minerals, and energy resources — that are all impacted by human decisions. Environmental and resource economics students are trained to examine and understand relationships between producer and consumer decisions, environmental conditions, climate change, and resource availability in our changing world. Students work to answer key questions that help them identify sustainable solutions for global challenges facing society. How do human behavior and decisions affect the environment? How do resource scarcities, like water scarcity, affect our natural world and our communities? How are people responding to climate change? And how can we innovate and spearhead solutions to overcome those challenges? If you have an interest in solving these questions, building strong quantitative skills, a passion for the environment, and a curiosity to understand human decision making, our environmental and resource economics major is for you.  

“Students are going to gain quantitative skills and insights from economics and decision-making science. They’re going to have this breadth of knowledge that is really needed to understand human behavior and help solve global environmental challenges.” – Leah Palm-Forster, associate professor of applied economics and director of the Center for Experimental and Applied Economics

“Climate change, pollution, and losses in biodiversity are creating important economic and societal challenges, and often disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of society. Our program provides students with a rigorous foundation for understanding these problems and possible policy responses through an economic lens.” – Christina McGranaghan, assistant professor of applied economics

Uniqueness of our program

You can choose to concentrate in either 1) economics of sustainability and policy or 2) natural resource management. Opportunities abound for hands-on undergraduate research experience with UD’s Center for Experimental and Applied Economics. Here, you engage with faculty one on one to learn about their research and how it is affecting the environment. Our environmental and resource economics faculty specialize in experimental and behavioral economics. Our team in the Center for Experimental and Applied Economics aims to nurture a diverse and inclusive community to dig into environmental challenges and conduct research that can inform environmental and agricultural policy.