Brian Danley

My primary research and teaching interest is applying economic analysis and statistical techniques to study public policy issues, with particular focus on forestry and fish conservation. The key policy questions that drive my work center on how to assist the public and public policy makers in converting well-intentioned environmental ideas into effective behavior.

From the beginning of my academic career, I have studied and researched in multiple disciplines and in international, cross-cultural environments. My studies have taken me from my origins in the midwest United States to the following destinations before coming to Campus Gotland as Assistant Professor in Environmental Science: Tokyo, Japan, Umeå, Sweden, Stirling, Scotland, Amherst, Massachusetts, and Seattle, Washington. I hold a bachelors degree in International Relations and Economics from William Jewell College, a masters degree in economics from the University of Kansas, and a PhD in environmental and resource economics from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. I did my postdoctoral studies at the US Family Forest Research Center and the University of Washington's School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

I enjoy exploring a diverse profile of research topics at the intersection of nature and society. So far my research has included the geography of entrepreneurship, different conceptions of ecosystem services, environmental attitudes, forest policy for biodiversity protection in Sweden, the economics and impacts of Washington State's policies to protect endangered fish habitat in rivers and streams on small forest lands, non-market valuation of endemic species, and the link between location-specific wildfire hazard and landowner concerns for wildfire hazard. I have taught at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels in subjects such as environmental economics, resource economics, public policy, and nature-based tourism. I can lecture in both English and Swedish.