Don L. Coursey
Don L. Coursey is the Ameritech
Professor of Public Policy Studies at the Irving B. Harris
Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University
of Chicago. From 1996 to 1998, Coursey served as dean of
the Harris School. Coursey is an experimental economist
whose research is concerned largely with eliciting reliable
measures of preferences and monetary values for public
goods, such as environmental quality. Coursey's research
has focused on comparisons of demand for international
environmental quality, environmental legislation in the
United States, and public preferences for environmental
outcomes relative to other social and economic goals.
Coursey recently led an investigation
of environmental equity in Chicago by examining the relationship
between the location of older hazardous industrial sites
and the racial composition of the surrounding neighborhoods.
In 1996, Coursey co-authored a report that examined the
relationship between active hazardous sites (such as incinerators
or landfills), minority populations, and public health concerns.
The report, The Locality of Waste Sites Within the City
of Chicago: A Demographic, Social and Economic Analysis,
shows that the citys patterns of industrialization
and settlement play a key role in the site's locations,
and found little historical evidence that waste-generating
industries were deliberately placed in minority neighborhoods.
Coursey's 1994 report, The
Revealed Demand for a Public Good: Evidence from Endangered
and Threatened Species, was widely noted for its analysis
of public expenditures per animal on the endangered species
list. His research indicated that federal expenditures reflect
public preferences for large, familiar animals such as panthers,
bald eagles or grizzly bears rather than animals such as
spiders, snails or insects, regardless of each species'
biological value in the ecosystem. Using experiments in
which participants risk real money, rather than hypothetical
situations, Coursey has researched how people make decisions
about what they are willing to pay for certain environmental
outcomes, such as increasing the number of trees in a public
park. Coursey has also consulted with the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration in the wake of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill to develop guidelines for federal response
to environmental disasters.
Coursey joined the faculty
of the Harris School in 1993. He received both a B.A. in
mathematics and a Ph.D. in economics from the University
of Arizona, and has previously taught at the University
of Wyoming and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
He has received the Burlington-Northern Foundation Award
for Distinguished Achievement in Teaching; the Greater St.
Louis Award for Excellence in University Teaching; and the
John M. Olin School of Business Teacher of the Year Award
in 1989 and 1990.
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