A. Patrick Behrer

Economist

Development Research Group (DECRG)

The World Bank

I am an environmental and development economist on the Sustainability and Infrastructure team in the Development Research Group at the World Bank.

My research focuses on the relationship between human development and environmental conditions. In particular I examine the causes and consequences of air pollution and the role of adaptation in reducing the damaging consequences of climate change. My work has been covered in The New York Times, NPR, the LA Times, Marketplace, and The Guardian. For the most up-to-date list of my publications see my Google Scholar page or my current work.

Prior to the World Bank I was  a post-doc at Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment affiliated with the labs of David Lobell and Marshall Burke. I received my PhD from Harvard University where I was a Harvard Environmental Economics Program pre-doctoral fellow and a PhD affiliate of Evidence for Policy Design as well as an EPA STAR Fellow. I also have a Masters degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Colorado State University and a PgDip in Environmental Management from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand where I was a Fulbright Fellow.


Publications

[9] Higher air pollution in wealthy districts of most low- and middle-income countries - Nature Sustainability, 2024 (with Sam Heft-Neal). [Let's Talk Development Blog]

[8] Higher levels of no-till agriculture associated with lower PM2.5 in the Corn Belt - Environmental Research Letters, 2022 (with David Lobell)

[7] Heat has larger impacts on labor in poorer areas. - Environmental Research Communications, 2021 (with Jisung Park, Gernot Wagner, Colleen Golja, and David Keith). Press: New York Times, New York Times (2)

[6] Securing Property Rights - Journal of Political Economy, 2021 (with Edward L. Glaeser,Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto and Andrei Shleifer) 

[5] Learning is Inhibited by Hotter Temperature: Both Internationally and within the United States - Nature Human Behavior, 2020 - (with Jisung Park and Joshua Goodman). Press: New York Times; The Guardian; Science News; Seattle Times; Scientific American; US Council on Economic Advisors

[4] Designing spatiotemporal multifunctional landscapes to support dynamic wildlife conservation -  Journal of Land Use Science, 2019 - (with Alex K. Killion, Adam Dixon, Jessica Gilbert, Mario Torralba and Patrick Greiner) 

[3] The Impact of Institutional and Land Use Change on Local Incomes in Chilean Patagonia - Journal of Development Studies, 2017 (with Dale T. Manning and Andrew Seidl) 

[2] Allocating Damage Compensation in a Federalist System: Lessons from Spatially Resolved Air Emissions in the Marcellus - Environmental Science and Technology, 2017 (with Meagan S. Mauter). 

[1] Spatially resolved air-water emissions tradeoffs improve regulatory impact analyses for electricity generation - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017 (with Daniel B. Gingerich, Xiaodi Sun, Ines L. Azevedo and  Meagan S. Mauter)