UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Matthew Gustafson, Robert and Judith Klein Professor of Finance in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State, will give the talk, “The Biodiversity Protection Discount,” at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 30, in 157 Hosler Building on the University Park campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
“Land use restrictions for biodiversity protection represent a common approach to conservation policy and affect 8% of land in the United States,” Gustafson said.
Gustafson studied the real and financial effects of these restrictions using parcel-level data on land values, transactions and development from 2010 to 2020. He documents a biodiversity protection discount of 45% of land value, which emerges after protected areas are created, and is accompanied by reductions in liquidity. His evidence suggests that this discount is driven by restrictions on development opportunities, as it is associated with a 30% decline in development rates and is largest in protected areas where development is most limited. Gustafson said he found little impact of local biodiversity protections on unregulated neighboring plots. His findings highlight economic consequences of U.S. conservation policies and their implications for private asset values.
Gustafson’s research examines topics in corporate finance, financial intermediation, and the economic impacts of the climate and weather. His work has been accepted for publication in leading business journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Journal of Public Economics.
Gustafson earned a doctorate in finance in 2013 and a master’s degree in finance in 2011, both from the University of Rochester. He also earned a master’s degree in applied statistics from Villanova University in 2008. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Swarthmore College in 2005.
The talk is part of the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI) fall Seminar Series. View more information on EEEPI.