News

Just published! Catalina Herrera-Almanza, a new assistant professor in ACE and CEOS affiliate, co-authored a study on community-based health interventions in Madagascar and their effects on women's fertility choices. Read the full article in the Journal of Health Economics. 

Herrera-Almanza, C. & Rosales-Rueda, M. F. (2020). Reducing the cost of remoteness: Community-based health interventions and fertility choices. Journal of Health Economics, 73, 02365, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2020.102365

Check out the first episode of the CEOS Podcast: "Birds and Neonic Pesticides": an interview with the authors of a newly published study on how neonicotinoid pesticides affect bird biodiversity in the U.S.

Thanks to Dr. Madhu Khanna and Dr. Ruiqing Miao for the being the guinea pigs for this first interview. Please excuse the audio quality, this was recorded on home computers during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Find the full study in Nature Sustainability: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0582-x

Republished from the University of Illinois press release, August 10, 2020

URBANA, Ill. ­– Bird biodiversity is rapidly declining in the U.S. The overall bird population decreased by 29% since 1970, while grassland birds declined by an alarming 53%.

Valuable for so much more than flight and song, birds hold a key place in ecosystems worldwide. When bird numbers and varieties dwindle, pest populations increase and much-needed pollination decreases. Those examples alone negatively impact food production and human health.

Likely reasons for the far-reaching and devastating declines include intensified agricultural production, use of pesticides, conversion of grassland to agricultural land, and climate change. A new study from University of Illinois points to increased use of neonicotinoid insecticides as a major factor in the decline, says Madhu Khanna, distinguished professor in agricultural and consumer economics at U of I and co-author on the paper, published in Nature Sustainability.  

A new peer-reviewed study in published in Science on July 24 explores how investments to prevent tropical deforestation and wildlife trade could significantly reduce overall costs associated with widespread zoonotic diseases that have rampaged through human populations in recent years. SARS, MERS, H1N1, HIV, and now the virus behind COVID-19 are all linked to human contact with wildlife. The economic and mortality toll of COVID-19 alone may cost as much as $16 trillion. The research team estimates the virus prevention costs for 10 years to be valued at only about 2% of the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you visited a meadow frequently as a child, would you want more to live near a natural area as an adult? Perhaps you were in a nature club in primary school; would you be more likely to volunteer for conservation efforts once you had your own income? How much does early life experience with nature affect the value you place on nature as an adult ?

University of Illinois doctoral student Liqing Li started thinking about this question at the 2017 Heartland Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop. A speaker was talking about environmental justice: how poor minority populations often live in highly polluted areas, and the next generation follows that pattern due to income constraints. Liqing wondered, “What if your childhood experience also affects your preference for the type of neighborhood or environment where you live? Would that also affect people’s willingness to pay for environmental protection around them?”