Focused on the economics of land use and climate change, Plantinga uses economic theory and models to predict land-use decisions, analyze environmental policies and understand the pressures of land development.
“I study land-use decisions by private landowners and public agencies and how those decisions affect environmental outcomes like climate and wildfire risk,” Plantinga explained. He aims to design policies that better align incentives for private landowners and public land managers with the services that society wants from the environment.
Plantinga is developing our understanding of how land markets function and how land-use policies change incentives. This enables economists, policymakers and resource managers to recognize what factors determine environmental outcomes and how these outcomes can be improved.
“Land-use decisions are central to so many important environmental outcomes,” Plantinga said. “Climate change, biodiversity, recreation, human health, wildlife habitat, water quality, wildfire, etc.” As a result, he works closely with scientists and scholars from other fields — multidisciplinary teams working on interdisciplinary problems.
Plantinga has tackled many topics over the years. For instance, he’s investigated the cost of mitigating climate change by increasing the amount of carbon sequestered in forests. He’s looked into the factors influencing land-use decisions made by public land managers. He’s also worked on designing policies to incentivize private landowners to maintain the natural ecosystems that provide valuable services, such as clean water, flood control and pollination.