Youngho (Young) Kim

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Economics at the Department of Economics and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery at the University of Oxford.  In August 2025, I will join the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics in the Department of Food and Resource Economics.  I am honored that my Ph.D. dissertation has been recognized with the Wallace E. Oates Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) and the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA).

Research Fields

Applied Microeconomics, Environmental & Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics

Research Overview

My research focuses on the design and evaluation of economic policies that address market failures in the provision of environmental services, with particular emphasis on payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs, nature-based climate solutions, and environmental credit markets.

My recent research examined: (i) the cost-effectiveness of payment for ecosystem services programs in mitigating flood damage, (ii) the optimal structure of payments and penalties to enhance the performance of environmental services programs, and (iii) the interaction between land conservation subsidies and environmental credit markets.

Education

• Ph.D. in Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of Maryland, 2024

• B.S. in Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, 2017