Alexander Pfaff | Scholars@Duke

Alexander Pfaff
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy

Alex Pfaff is a Professor of Public Policy, Economics and Environment at Duke University. He studies how economic development affects and is affected by natural resources and the environment. His focus is on the impacts of conservation policies (such as protected areas, ecoservices payments, and certifications) and development policies (such as roads and rights). Those impacts are functions of choices by individuals and communities that affect land use, water quantity and quality, human exposures (to arsenic, mercury, mining, and particulates), and both the provision and use of information.

Research accessible at AlexPfaff.com

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2013
Professor in the Department of Economics, Economics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013
Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2013
Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center, Duke Population Research Center, Duke Population Research Institute 2010
Faculty Network Member of The Energy Initiative, Nicholas Institute-Energy Initiative, Initiatives 2012
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, Duke Science & Society, Initiatives 2020

Contact Information

284 Rubenstein Hall, Box 90312, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90312, Durham, NC 27708
alex.pfaff@duke.edu (919) 613-9240
Alex Pfaff Website

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1995
- B.A., Yale University 1988
Duke Appointment History
- Director of Grad Studies for the Univ Prog in Environmental Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University 2016 - 2017
- Director of Graduate Studies of the University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP), Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University 2013 - 2016
- Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2007 - 2013
- Associate Professor of Economics, Economics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2007 - 2013
- Associate Professor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Division, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2010 - 2013
Recognition
In the News
- JUL 27, 2021 International & Global Studies
  
  An Exciting Step Toward a Shared Research-Policy Agenda in 'Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining'
- MAY 23, 2019 Sanford School Policy 360 Podcast
  
  Alexander Pfaff: Don’t Just Document Declines In Nature. Reverse Them
Awards & Honors
- Best Paper Award. Society of Risk Analysis. 2011
Expertise
Subject Headings
- Acre
- Arsenic
- Carbon
- Deforestation
- Economics
- Fuel
- Indoor air pollution
- Land use
- Malaria
- Policy
- Protected areas
- Toilets
- Tropics
- Uncertainty
Global Scholarship
- Research
Research
Selected Grants
- Community Resilience and Biodiversity Conservation in Brazil awarded by Department of Agriculture 2010 - 2021
- Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED2) awarded by Columbia University 2010 - 2015
- Forest Impacts of Certification awarded by World Wildlife Fund 2014 - 2015
- Conservation Policy Impacts in Tropical Dry Forest Regional & Spatially Focused Analyses Given Other Social and Natural Drivers of Land Use awarded by Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research 2007 - 2011
- Coordination of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme special publication entitled Amazon and Global Change, on the results of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere (LBA) research project in the Amazon, Brazil awarded by Department of Agriculture 2009 - 2010
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Academic Articles
  - Robalino, J., A. Pfaff, C. Sandoval, and G. A. Sanchez-Azofeifa. “Can we increase the impacts from payments for ecosystem services? Impact rose over time in Costa Rica, yet spatial variation indicates more potential (Accepted).” Forest Policy and Economics 132 (November 1, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102577.
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  - Rodriguez, L. A., M. A. Velez, and A. Pfaff. “Leaders’ distributional & efficiency effects in collective responses to policy: Lab-in-field experiments with small-scale gold miners in Colombia (Accepted).” World Development 147 (November 1, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105648.
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  - Börner, J., D. Schulz, S. Wunder, and A. Pfaff. “The effectiveness of forest conservation policies and programs.” Annual Review of Resource Economics 12 (October 6, 2020): 45–64. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-110119-025703.
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  - Keles, D., P. Delacote, A. Pfaff, S. Qin, and M. B. Mascia. “What Drives the Erasure of Protected Areas? Evidence from across the Brazilian Amazon.” Ecological Economics 176 (October 1, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106733.
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  - Díaz, Sandra, Josef Settele, Eduardo S. Brondízio, Hien T. Ngo, John Agard, Almut Arneth, Patricia Balvanera, et al. “Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 366, no. 6471 (December 2019). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax3100.
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  - Rodriguez, L. A., A. Pfaff, and M. A. Velez. “Graduated stringency within collective incentives for group environmental compliance: Building coordination in field-lab experiments with artisanal gold miners in Colombia.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 98 (November 1, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2019.102276.
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  - Pfaff, A., L. A. Rodriguez, and E. Shapiro-Garza. “Collective Local Payments for ecosystem services: New local PES between groups, sanctions, and prior watershed trust in Mexico.” Water Resources and Economics 28 (October 1, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wre.2019.01.002.
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  - Herrera, Diego, Alexander Pfaff, and Juan Robalino. “Impacts of protected areas vary with the level of government: Comparing avoided deforestation across agencies in the Brazilian Amazon.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116, no. 30 (July 8, 2019): 14916–25. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802877116.
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  - Naidoo, R., D. Gerkey, D. Hole, A. Pfaff, A. M. Ellis, C. D. Golden, D. Herrera, et al. “Evaluating the impacts of protected areas on human well-being across the developing world.” Science Advances 5, no. 4 (April 3, 2019): eaav3006. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav3006.
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  - Fisher, Brendan, Diego Herrera, Diane Adams, Helen E. Fox, Louise Gallagher, Drew Gerkey, David Gill, et al. “Can nature deliver on the sustainable development goals?” The Lancet. Planetary Health 3, no. 3 (March 2019): e112–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(18)30281-x.
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  - Panlasigui, Stephanie, Stephanie Jimena Rico-Straffon, Stephanie Alexander Pfaff, Stephanie Jennifer Swenson, and Stephanie Colby Loucks. “Impacts of certification, uncertified concessions, and protected areas on forest loss in Cameroon, 2000 to 2013.” Biological Conservation 227 (November 2018): 160–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.09.013.
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  - Pfaff, A., J. Robalino, E. J. Reis, R. Walker, S. Perz, W. Laurance, C. Bohrer, et al. “Roads & SDGs, tradeoffs and synergies: Learning from Brazil’s Amazon in distinguishing frontiers.” Economics 12 (March 5, 2018). https://doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2018-11.
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  - Tesfaw, Anteneh T., Alexander Pfaff, Rachel E. Golden Kroner, Siyu Qin, Rodrigo Medeiros, and Michael B. Mascia. “Land-use and land-cover change shape the sustainability and impacts of protected areas.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, no. 9 (February 12, 2018): 2084–89. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716462115.
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  - Kaczan, D., A. Pfaff, L. Rodriguez, and E. Shapiro-Garza. “Increasing the impact of collective incentives in payments for ecosystem services.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 86 (November 1, 2017): 48–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2017.06.007.
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  - Herrera, Diego, Alicia Ellis, Brendan Fisher, Christopher D. Golden, Kiersten Johnson, Mark Mulligan, Alexander Pfaff, Timothy Treuer, and Taylor H. Ricketts. “Upstream watershed condition predicts rural children's health across 35 developing countries.” Nature Communications 8, no. 1 (October 9, 2017): 811. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00775-2.
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  - Pfaff, A., and J. Robalino. “Spillovers from conservation programs.” Annual Review of Resource Economics 9 (October 5, 2017): 299–315. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100516-053543.
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  - Robalino, J., A. Pfaff, and L. Villalobos. “Heterogeneous local spillovers from protected areas in Costa Rica.” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 4, no. 3 (September 1, 2017): 795–820. https://doi.org/10.1086/692089.
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  - Alpízar, F., A. Nordén, A. Pfaff, and J. Robalino. “Unintended Effects of Targeting an Environmental Rebate.” Environmental and Resource Economics 67, no. 1 (May 1, 2017): 181–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-015-9981-2.
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  - Alpízar, F., A. Nordén, A. Pfaff, and J. Robalino. “Spillovers from targeting of incentives: Exploring responses to being excluded.” Journal of Economic Psychology 59 (April 1, 2017): 87–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.02.007.
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  - Pfaff, A., A. Schoenfeld, K. M. Ahmed, and A. van Geen. “Reduction in exposure to arsenic from drinking well-water in Bangladesh limited by insufficient testing and awareness.” Journal of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Development : A Journal of the International Water Association 7, no. 2 (January 2017): 331–39. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2017.136.
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  - Pfaff, A., F. Santiago-Ávila, and L. Joppa. “Evolving protected-area impacts in Mexico: Political shifts as suggested by impact evaluations.” Forests 8, no. 1 (January 1, 2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/f8010017.
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  - Mandle, L., B. P. Bryant, M. Ruckelshaus, D. Geneletti, J. M. Kiesecker, and A. Pfaff. “Entry Points for Considering Ecosystem Services within Infrastructure Planning: How to Integrate Conservation with Development in Order to Aid Them Both.” Conservation Letters 9, no. 3 (May 1, 2016): 221–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12201.
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  - Baylis, K., J. Honey-Rosés, J. Börner, E. Corbera, D. Ezzine-de-Blas, P. J. Ferraro, R. Lapeyre, U. M. Persson, A. Pfaff, and S. Wunder. “Mainstreaming Impact Evaluation in Nature Conservation.” Conservation Letters 9, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 58–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12180.
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  - Pfaff, A., M. A. Vélez, P. A. Ramos, and A. Molina. “Framed field experiment on resource scarcity & extraction: Path-dependent generosity within sequential water appropriation.” Ecological Economics 120 (December 1, 2015): 416–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.06.002.
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  - Pfaff, Alexander, Juan Robalino, Catalina Sandoval, and Diego Herrera. “Protected area types, strategies and impacts in Brazil's Amazon: public protected area strategies do not yield a consistent ranking of protected area types by impact.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 370, no. 1681 (November 2015). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0273.
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  - Blackman, A., A. Pfaff, and J. Robalino. “Paper park performance: Mexico's natural protected areas in the 1990s.” Global Environmental Change 31 (January 1, 2015): 50–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.12.004.
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  - Pfaff, Alexander, Juan Robalino, Diego Herrera, and Catalina Sandoval. “Protected Areas' Impacts on Brazilian Amazon Deforestation: Examining Conservation-Development Interactions to Inform Planning.” Plos One 10, no. 7 (January 2015): e0129460. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129460.
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  - Robalino, Juan, Catalina Sandoval, David N. Barton, Adriana Chacon, and Alexander Pfaff. “Evaluating interactions of forest conservation policies on avoided deforestation.” Plos One 10, no. 4 (January 2015): e0124910. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124910.
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  - Sills, Erin O., Diego Herrera, A Justin Kirkpatrick, Amintas Brandão, Rebecca Dickson, Simon Hall, Subhrendu Pattanayak, et al. “Estimating the Impacts of Local Policy Innovation: The Synthetic Control Method Applied to Tropical Deforestation.” Plos One 10, no. 7 (January 2015): e0132590. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132590.
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  - Balasubramanya, Soumya, Alexander Pfaff, Lori Bennear, Alessandro Tarozzi, Kazi Matin Ahmed, Amy Schoenfeld, and Alexander van Geen. “Evolution of households' responses to the groundwater arsenic crisis in Bangladesh: information on environmental health risks can have increasing behavioral impact over time.” Environment and Development Economics 19, no. 5 (October 2014): 631–47. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x13000612.
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  - Pfaff, A., J. Robalino, E. Lima, C. Sandoval, and L. D. Herrera. “Governance, Location and Avoided Deforestation from Protected Areas: Greater Restrictions Can Have Lower Impact, Due to Differences in Location.” World Development 55 (March 1, 2014): 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.01.011.
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  - Haruna, A., A. Pfaff, S. Van Den Ende, and L. Joppa. “Evolving protected-area impacts in Panama: Impact shifts show that plans require anticipation.” Environmental Research Letters 9, no. 3 (January 1, 2014). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/035007.
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  - Alpizar, Francisco, Anna Norden, Alexander Pfaff, and Juan Robalino. “Effects of Exclusion from a Conservation Policy: Negative Behavioral Spillovers from Targeted Incentives,” October 2013.
  - Alpizar, Francisco, Anna Norden, Alexander Pfaff, and Juan Robalino. “Behavioral Spillovers from Targeted Incentives: Losses from Excluded Individuals Can Counter Gains from Those Selected,” October 1, 2013.
  - Mueller, V., A. Pfaff, J. Peabody, Y. Liu, and K. R. Smith. “Improving stove evaluation using survey data: Who received which intervention matters.” Ecological Economics 93 (September 1, 2013): 301–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.06.001.
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  - Bennear, Lori, Alessandro Tarozzi, Alexander Pfaff, Soumya Balasubramanya, Kazi Matin Ahmed, and Alexander van Geen. “Impact of a Randomized Controlled Trial in Arsenic Risk Communication on Household Water-Source Choices in Bangladesh.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 65, no. 2 (March 2013): 225–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.07.006.
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  - Pfaff, A., M. A. Velez, R. Taddei, and K. Broad. “Unequal Information, Unequal Allocation: Bargaining field experiments in NE Brazil.” Environmental Science and Policy 26 (February 1, 2013): 90–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2012.07.002.
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  - Engel, S., C. Palmer, and A. Pfaff. “On the endogeneity of resource comanagement: Theory and evidence from indonesia.” Land Economics 89, no. 2 (January 1, 2013): 308–29. https://doi.org/10.3368/le.89.2.308.
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  - Pfaff, A., G. S. Amacher, and E. O. Sills. “Realistic REDD: Improving the forest impacts of domestic policies in different settings.” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 7, no. 1 (January 1, 2013): 114–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/res023.
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  - Pfaff, A., J. Robalino, E. Lima, C. Sandoval, and L. D. Herrera. “Governance, Location and Avoided Deforestation from Protected Areas: Greater Restrictions Can Have Lower Impact, Due to Differences in Location.” World Development, 2013.
  - Robalino, J., and A. Pfaff. “Ecopayments and deforestation in Costa Rica: A nationwide analysis of PSA's initial years.” Land Economics 89, no. 3 (January 1, 2013): 432–48. https://doi.org/10.3368/le.89.3.432.
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  - Fonseca, M. A., A. Pfaff, and D. Osgood. “The advantage of resource queues over spot resource markets: Decision coordination in experiments under resource uncertainty.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 94, no. 5 (October 1, 2012): 1136–53. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aas065.
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  - Pfaff, A., and J. Robalino. “Protecting forests, biodiversity, and the climate: Predicting policy impact to improve policy choice.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 28, no. 1 (October 1, 2012): 164–79. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grs012.
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  - Robalino, J. A., and A. Pfaff. “Contagious development: Neighbor interactions in deforestation.” Journal of Development Economics 97, no. 2 (March 1, 2012): 427–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2011.06.003.
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  - Pfaff, A., and M. A. Vélez. “Efficiency and equity in negotiated resource transfers: Contributions and limitations of trust with limited contracts.” Ecological Economics 74 (February 1, 2012): 55–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.10.009.
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  - Mueller, Valerie, Alexander Pfaff, John Peabody, Yaping Liu, and Kirk R. Smith. “Demonstrating bias and improved inference for stoves' health benefits.” International Journal of Epidemiology 40, no. 6 (December 2011): 1643–51. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyr150.
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  - Pfaff, Alexander, Gregory S. Amacher, and Erin O. Sills. “Getting REDDy: Understanding and Improving Domestic Policy Impacts on Forest Loss.” Duke Environmental Economics Working Paper, no. 11 (September 25, 2011).
  - Tarozzi, Alessandro, Lori Snyder Bennear, Alexander Pfaff, H. B. Soumya, Kazi Matin Ahmed, and Alexander van Geen. “Bright Lines, Risk Beliefs, and Risk Avoidance: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in Bangladesh.” Economic Research Initiatives at Duke Working Paper, no. 77 (July 1, 2011).
  - Joppa, Lucas N., and Alexander Pfaff. “Global protected area impacts.” Proceedings. Biological Sciences 278, no. 1712 (June 2011): 1633–38. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.1713.
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  - Fonseca, Miguel A., Alexander Pfaff, and Daniel E. Osgood. “Efficiency Gains from Pre-Investment Resource Queues: Coordinating Investment Under Resource Uncertainty,” April 1, 2011.
  - Yin, Haitao, Alex Pfaff, and Howard Kunreuther. “Can environmental insurance succeed where other strategies fail? The case of underground storage tanks.” Risk Analysis : An Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis 31, no. 1 (January 2011): 12–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01479.x.
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  - Bennear, Lori Snyder, Alessandro Tarozzi, Alexander Pfaff, H. B. Soumya, Kazi Matin Ahmed, and Alexander van Geen. “Bright Lines, Risk Beliefs, and Risk Avoidance: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in Bangladesh,” October 1, 2010.
  - Engel, Stefanie, Charles Palmer, and Alexander Pfaff. “Participatory Protection in Theory and Application: Paper Tigers, Fences & Fines, or Negotiated Co-Management?,” August 1, 2010.
  - Pfaff, A., and R. Walker. “Regional interdependence and forest "transitions": Substitute deforestation limits the relevance of local reversals.” Land Use Policy 27, no. 2 (April 1, 2010): 119–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.07.010.
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  - Ricketts, Taylor H., Britaldo Soares-Filho, Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca, Daniel Nepstad, Alexander Pfaff, Annie Petsonk, Anthony Anderson, et al. “Indigenous lands, protected areas, and slowing climate change.” Plos Biology 8, no. 3 (March 16, 2010): e1000331. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000331.
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  - Joppa, Lucas, and Alexander Pfaff. “Reassessing the forest impacts of protection: the challenge of nonrandom location and a corrective method.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1185 (January 2010): 135–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05162.x.
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  - Joppa, Lucas N., and Alexander Pfaff. “High and far: biases in the location of protected areas.” Plos One 4, no. 12 (December 14, 2009): e8273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008273.
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  - Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., and Alexander Pfaff. “Behavior, Environment, and Health in Developing Countries: Evaluation and Valuation.” Annual Review of Resource Economics 1, no. 1 (October 10, 2009): 183–217. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.resource.050708.144053.
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  - Loose, B., M. Stute, P. Alexander, and W. M. Smethie. “Design and deployment of a portable membrane equilibrator for sampling aqueous dissolved gases.” Water Resources Research 46, no. 4 (April 1, 2009). https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR006969.
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  - Pfaff, A., A. Barbieri, T. Ludewigs, F. Merry, S. Perz, and E. Reis. “Road impacts in Brazilian Amazonia.” Geophysical Monograph Series 186 (January 1, 2009): 101–16. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GM000737.
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  - Pfaff, A., J. Robalino, G. A. Sanchez-Azofeifa, K. S. Andam, and P. J. Ferraro. “Park location affects forest protection: Land characteristics cause differences in park impacts across costa rica.” B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 9, no. 2 (January 1, 2009). https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.1990.
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  - Andam, Kwaw S., Paul J. Ferraro, Alexander Pfaff, G Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, and Juan A. Robalino. “Measuring the effectiveness of protected area networks in reducing deforestation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, no. 42 (October 14, 2008): 16089–94. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800437105.
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  - Madajewicz, M., A. Pfaff, A. van Geen, J. Graziano, I. Hussein, H. Momotaj, R. Sylvi, and H. Ahsan. “Erratum to "Can information alone change behavior? Response to arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh" [Journal of Development Economics 84 (2007) 731-754] (DOI:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.12.002).” Journal of Development Economics 85, no. 1–2 (February 1, 2008): 349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2007.09.003.
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  - Sánchez-Azofeifa, G Arturo, Alexander Pfaff, Juan Andres Robalino, and Judson P. Boomhower. “Costa Rica's payment for environmental services program: intention, implementation, and impact.” Conservation Biology : The Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology 21, no. 5 (October 2007): 1165–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00751.x.
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  - Chen, Yu, Alexander van Geen, Joseph H. Graziano, Alexander Pfaff, Malgosia Madajewicz, Faruque Parvez, AZM Iftekhar Hussain, Vesna Slavkovich, Tariqul Islam, and Habibul Ahsan. “Reduction in urinary arsenic levels in response to arsenic mitigation efforts in Araihazar, Bangladesh.” Environmental Health Perspectives 115, no. 6 (June 2007): 917–23. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9833.
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  - Opar, Alisa, Alex Pfaff, A. A. Seddique, K. M. Ahmed, J. H. Graziano, and A. van Geen. “Responses of 6500 households to arsenic mitigation in Araihazar, Bangladesh.” Health & Place 13, no. 1 (March 2007): 164–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2005.11.004.
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  - Pfaff, A., J. A. Robalino, R. Walker, E. Reis, S. Perz, C. Bohrer, S. Aldrich, E. Arima, and M. Caldas. “Road Investments, Spatial Intensification and Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.” Journal of Regional Science 47 (February 2007): 109–23.
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  - Pfaff, A., J. Robalino, R. Walker, S. Aldrich, M. Caldas, E. Reis, S. Perz, et al. “Road investments, spatial spillovers, and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.” Journal of Regional Science 47, no. 1 (February 1, 2007): 109–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2007.00502.x.
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  - Broad, K., A. Pfaff, R. Taddei, A. Sankarasubramanian, U. Lall, and F. de Assis de Souza Filho. “Climate, stream flow prediction and water management in northeast Brazil: Societal trends and forecast value.” Climatic Change 84, no. 2 (January 1, 2007): 217–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-007-9257-0.
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  - Madajewicz, M., A. Pfaff, A. van Geen, J. Graziano, I. Hussein, H. Momotaj, R. Sylvi, and H. Ahsan. “Can information alone change behavior? Response to arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh.” Journal of Development Economics 84, no. 2 (January 1, 2007): 731–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.12.002.
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  - Madajewicz, M., A. Pfaff, J. Graziano, A. van Geen, I. Hussein, H. Momotaj, R. Sylvi, and H. Ahsan. “Can Information Alone Both Improve Awareness and Change Behavior? Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh.” Journal of Development Economics, 2007.
  - Pfaff, A. “What Would Have Happened? reviewing and improving estimated baselines for tropical forests and sequestered carbon (Accepted).” Ecological Applications (Invited Special Issue), 2007.
  - Pfaff, A., S. Kerr, L. Lipper, R. Cavatassi, B. Davis, J. Hendy, and G. A. Sanchez-Azofeifa. “Will buying tropical forest carbon benefit the poor? Evidence from Costa Rica.” Land Use Policy 24, no. 3 (January 1, 2007): 600–610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2006.01.003.
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  - Ahmed, M. F., S. Ahuja, M. Alauddin, S. J. Hug, J. R. Lloyd, A. Pfaff, T. Pichler, C. Saltikov, M. Stute, and A. van Geen. “Epidemiology. Ensuring safe drinking water in Bangladesh.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 314, no. 5806 (December 2006): 1687–88. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1133146.
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  - Meyerson, L. A., J. Baron, J. M. Melillo, R. J. Naiman, R. I. O’Malley, G. Orians, M. A. Palmer, A. S. P. Pfaff, S. W. Running, and O. E. Sala. “Aggregate measures of ecosystem services: Can we take the pulse of nature?” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3, no. 1 SPEC. ISS. (January 1, 2005): 56–59. https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2005)003[0056:amoesc]2.0.co;2.
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  - Zivin, Joshua Graff, and Alexander S. P. Pfaff. “To err on humans is not benign. Incentives for adoption of medical error-reporting systems.” Journal of Health Economics 23, no. 5 (September 2004): 935–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.01.003.
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  - Pfaff, A. S. P., and G. A. Sanchez-Azofeifa. “Deforestation pressure and biological reserve planning: A conceptual approach and an illustrative application for Costa Rica.” Resource and Energy Economics 26, no. 2 (June 1, 2004): 237–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2003.11.009.
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  - Pfaff, A., and C. W. Sanchirico. “Big field, small potatoes: An empirical assessment of EPA's self-audit policy.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 23, no. 3 (June 1, 2004): 415–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20027.
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  - Pfaff, A. S. P., S. Chaudhuri, and H. L. M. Nye. “Household production and Environmental Kuznets Curves.” Environmental and Resource Economics 27, no. 2 (February 1, 2004): 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EARE.0000017279.79445.72.
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  - Pfaff, A., P. Barelli, and S. Chaudhuri. “Aid, economic growth and environmental sustainability: Rich-poor interactions and environmental choices in developing countries.” International Journal of Global Environmental Issues 4, no. 1–3 (January 1, 2004): 139–59. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijgenvi.2004.005288.
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  - Pfaff, A., S. Chaudhuri, and H. L. M. Nye. “Household Production & Environmental Kuznets Curves: examining the desirability and feasibility of substitution.” Environmental and Resource Economics 27, no. 2 (2004): 187–200.
  - Pfaff, A., S. Chaudhuri, and H. L. M. Nye. “Endowments, preferences, technologies and abatement: Growth-environment microfoundations.” International Journal of Global Environmental Issues 4, no. 4 (January 1, 2004): 209–28. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJGENVI.2004.006051.
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  - Kerr, Suzi, Shuguang Liu, Alexander S. P. Pfaff, and R Flint Hughes. “Carbon dynamics and land-use choices: building a regional-scale multidisciplinary model.” Journal of Environmental Management 69, no. 1 (September 2003): 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0301-4797(03)00106-3.
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  - Broad, K., A. S. P. Pfaff, and M. H. Glantz. “Effective and equitable dissemination of seasonal-to-interannual climate forecasts: Policy implications from the Peruvian fishery during El Niño 1997-98.” Climatic Change 54, no. 4 (August 17, 2002): 415–38. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016164706290.
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  - Arturo Sánchez-Azofeifa, G., G. C. Daily, A. S. P. Pfaff, and C. Busch. “Integrity and isolation of Costa Rica's national parks and biological reserves: Examining the dynamics of land-cover change.” Biological Conservation 109, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 123–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(02)00145-3.
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  - Pfaff, A., and D. M. Peteet. “Generating Probabilities in Support of Societal Decision Making: the case of abrupt climate change.” Eos (American Geophysical Union), May 2001.
  - Pfaff, A. S. P., and D. M. Peteet. “Generating probabilities in support of societal decision-making.” Eos 82, no. 20 (January 1, 2001). https://doi.org/10.1029/01EO00119.
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  - Kahn, M. E., and A. Pfaff. “Informal Economies, Information and the Environment.” Journal of International Affairs 54, no. 2 (2000): 525–44.
  - Pfaff, A. S. P., S. Kerr, R. F. Hughes, S. Liu, G. A. Sanchez-Azofeifa, D. Schimel, J. Tosi, and V. Watson. “The Kyoto protocol and payments for tropical forest: An interdisciplinary method for estimating carbon-offset supply and increasing the feasibility of a carbon market under the CDM.” Ecological Economics 35, no. 2 (January 1, 2000): 203–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(00)00199-3.
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  - Pfaff, A. S. P., and C. W. Sanchirico. “Environmental self-auditing: Setting the proper incentives for discovery and correction of environmental harm.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 16, no. 1 (January 1, 2000): 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/16.1.189.
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  - Pfaff, Alexander, and Chris William Sanchirico. “Environmental Self-Auditing: Setting the Proper Incentives for Discovering and Correcting Environmental Harm,” September 23, 1999.
  - Stavins, Robert N., and Alexander Pfaff. “Readings in the Field of Natural Resource & Environmental Economics,” June 22, 1999.
  - Pfaff, Alexander, and Suzi Kerr. “A Carbon Sequestration Supply Function and Development of Feasible Clean Development Mechanism Rules for Tropical Forest Carbon Sinks,” June 1999.
  - Pfaff, A., K. Broad, and M. Glantz. “Who benefits from climate forecasts?” Nature 397, no. 6721 (February 25, 1999): 645–46. https://doi.org/10.1038/17676.
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  - Pfaff, A., K. Broad, and M. H. Glantz. “Who benefits from seasonal-to-interannual climate forecasts?” Nature 397, no. 6721 (February 1999): 645–46.
  - Pfaff, A. S. P. “What drives deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon? Evidence from satellite and socioeconomic data.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 37, no. 1 (January 1, 1999): 26–43. https://doi.org/10.1006/jeem.1998.1056.
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  - Melo, J. de, A. Pfaff, and D. Tarr. “Welfare costs and rent premia when quotas are not transferable.” European Economic Review 38, no. 3–4 (January 1, 1994): 577–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-2921(94)90093-0.
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- Book Sections
  - Pfaff, A., G. S. Amacher, E. O. Sills, M. J. Coren, C. Streck, and K. Lawlor. “Deforestation and Forest Degradation: Concerns, Causes, Policies, and Their Impacts.” In Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resource, and Environmental Economics, 2–3:144–49, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-375067-9.00052-8.
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  - Robalino, J., A. Pfaff, and L. Villalobos. “Assessing the impact of institutional design of payments for environmental services: The costa rican experience.” In Ecosystem Services from Agriculture and Agroforestry: Measurement and Payment, 305–18, 2012. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781849775656.
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  - Pfaff, A., and J. Robalino. “Human choices and policies' impacts on ecosystem services: Improving evaluations of payment and park effects on conservation and carbon.” In Avoided Deforestation: Prospects for Mitigating Climate Change, 192–207, 2009. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203880999.
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  - Perz, S., J. P. Messina, E. Reis, R. Walker, and S. J. Walsh. “Scenarios of future Amazonian landscapes: Econometric and dynamic simulation models,” 186:83–100, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GM000736.
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  - Robalino, J. A., A. Pfaff, and A. Sanchez-Azofeifa. “Estimating spatial interactions in deforestation decisions.” In Biodiversity Economics, 92–114, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511551079.006.
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- Scholarly Editions
  - Kerr, Suzi, Shuguang Liu, Alexander Pfaff, and Flint Hughes. “Carbon Dynamics and Land-use Choices: Building a Regional-scale Multidisciplinary Model,” September 3, 2003.
  - Kerr, Suzi, Joanna Hendy, Shuguang Liu, and Alexander Pfaff. “Tropical Forest Protection, Uncertainty, and the Environmental Integrity of Carbon Mitigation Policies,” n.d.
  - Rico, Jimena, Stephanie Panlasigui, Colby J. Loucks, Jennifer Swenson, and Alexander Pfaff. “Logging concessions, certification and protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon: forest impacts from development rights and land-use restrictions,” n.d.
  - Robalino, Juan, Alexander Pfaff, and Laura Villalobos. “Deforestation spillovers from Costa Rican protected areas,” n.d.
- Conference Papers
  - Chen, Y., A. van Geen, J. Graziano, A. Pfaff, Z. Cheng, V. Slavkovich, T. Islam, F. Parvez, and H. Ahsan. “The Effectiveness of a Multidisciplinary Community-Based Mitigation Program in Reducing Arsenic Exposure in Araihazar, Bangladesh.” In American Journal of Epidemiology, 163:S115–S115. Oxford University Press (OUP), 2006. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/163.suppl_11.s115-d.
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  - Geen, Alexander van, Matilde Trevisani, John Immel, Andrew Gelman, Amy Schoenfeld, Alex Pfaff, and Kazi Matin Ahmed. “Targeting low-arsenic aquifers for the installation of community wells in Bangladesh.” In Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 231. AMER CHEMICAL SOC, 2006.
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Teaching & Mentoring
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- Bass Connections Faculty Team Member. DECIPHER: Case Studies in Drinking Water Quality. 2018 - 2019 2018 - 2019
- Bass Connections Faculty Team Member. Environmental Epidemiology in Latin America: Research and Policy Development to Reduce Chemical Exposures. August 2016 - May 2017 2016 - 2017

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