Professor Timothy Swanson, CIES Academic Co-director, has published research in a new article in the Resource and Energy Economics Journal

Swanson's article with Pedro Naso, Ozgun Haznedar and Bruno Lanz examines how the food requirements of 12 billion people can be met while also dedicating substantial parts of the global land supply for climate change management and biodiversity provision purposes. Using a macroeconomic model (MAVA), they demonstrate that it may be possible to provide for both needs in the long-run.

"We first show that it may be possible to provide for food requirements with very substantial constraints on the amount of land used in agriculture with relatively minor welfare losses. We then show that global policies that re-allocate labour across sectors may have the capacity for directing the economy toward reduced reliance on land in agriculture. Focusing on land management, research and development, and fertility choices may be the best way to meet these combined goals."