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Subhrendu K. Pattanayak, Oak Foundation Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Energy Policy  

Office Location: 124 Rubenstein Hall, Box 90312, Durham, NC 27708-0312
Office Phone: +1 919 613 9306
Duke Box: 90312
Email Address: subhrendu.pattanayak@duke.edu
Web Page: http://sites.duke.edu/cookstove/

Areas of Expertise

  • Environment and Energy, Environmental Law, Regulation and Policy

    Evaluation of Ecosystem Services
    Economics of Environmental Health

  • Health Policy, Global Health
  • International, Environmental Management and Policy

Education:
Ph.D., Duke University, 1997
Summer Institute in Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2004
M.S., Purdue University, 1992
B.A., St. Stephen's College, Delhi (India), 1990
B.A., Economics, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, India, 1990

Teaching (Spring 2024):

  • Pubpol 811.01, Microeco: policy appl Synopsis
    Sanford 04, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM
  • Pubpol 890.14, Special topics Synopsis
    Sanford 150, W 03:20 PM-05:50 PM

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Pattanayak, SK; Sills, EO. "Do tropical forests provide natural insurance? The microeconomics of non-timber forest product collection in the Brazilian Amazon." Land Economics 77.4 (January, 2001): 595-612. [doi]  [abs]
  2. Smith, VK; Pattanayak, SK. "Is meta-analysis a Noah's Ark for non-market valuation?." Environmental and Resource Economics 22.1-2 (June, 2002): 271-296. [doi]  [abs]
  3. Smith, VK; Van Houtven, G; Pattanayak, SK. "Benefit transfer via preference calibration: "Prudential Algebra" for policy." Land Economics 78.1 (January, 2002): 132-152. [doi]  [abs]
  4. Pattanayak, SK; Sills, EO; Kramer, RA. "Seeing the forest for the fuel." Environment and Development Economics 9.1 (January, 2004): 155-179. [repository], [doi]  [abs]
  5. Pattanayak, SK; Yang, JC; Whittington, D; Bal Kumar, KC. "Coping with unreliable public water supplies: Averting expenditures by households in Kathmandu, Nepal." Water Resources Research 41.2 (February, 2005): 1-11. [doi]  [abs]
  6. Pattanayak, SK; Butry, DT. "Spatial complementarity of forests and farms: Accounting for ecosystem services." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 87.4 (November, 2005): 995-1008. [doi]  [abs]
  7. Pattanayak, SK; Yang, JC; Dickinson, KL; Poulos, C; Patil, SR; Mallick, R; Blitstein, J; Praharaj, P. "Shame or subsidy revisited: Social mobilization for sanitation in Orissa, India." Bulletin of World Health Organization 87.8 (Summer, 2009): 580-587. [19705007], [doi]  [abs]
  8. Pattanayak, SK; Poulos, C; Yang, JC; Patil, SR; Wendland, KJ. "Of Taps and Toilets: Quasi-experimental protocols for evaluating community-demand driven projects." Journal of Water and Health 7 (3).3 (2009): 434-451. [19491494], [doi]  [abs]
  9. Ferraro, PJ; Pattanayak, SK. "Money for nothing? A call for empirical evaluation of biodiversity conservation investments." PLoS Biology 4.4 (2006): 482-488. [16602825], [doi]
  10. Pattanayak, SK; Pfaff, A. "Behavior, Environment, and Health in Developing Countries: Evaluation and Valuation." Annual Review of Resource Economics 1.1 (October, 2009): 183-217. [Gateway.cgi], [doi]  [abs]
  11. Pattanayak, SK; Wendland, KJ. "Nature's care: Diarrhea, watershed protection, and biodiversity conservation in Flores, Indonesia." Biodiversity and Conservation 16.10 (September, 2007): 2801-2819. [doi]  [abs]
  12. S.K. Pattanayak. "Rough guide to impact evaluation of environmental and development programs." Working Paper, SANDEE. (2009). [pdf]

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:
Subhrendu K. Pattanayak is the Oak Professor of Environmental and Energy Policy at Duke University. He studies the causes and consequences of human behaviors related to the natural environment to help design and evaluate policy interventions in low-income tropical countries. His research is in three domains at the intersection of environment, development, health and energy: forest ecosystem services, environmental health (diarrhea, malaria, respiratory infections) and household energy transitions. He has focused on design of institutions and policies that are motivated by enormous inequities and a range of efficiency concerns (externalities, public goods and imperfect information and competition).

Dr. Pattanayak approaches these problems through systematic reviews of the literature (meta-analyses) and statistical modeling with high-resolution objective data collected in the field. He then uses those data to test hypotheses salient to policy manipulation, developed both from economic frameworks, stakeholder discussions and direct observations in the field. He employs empirical methods that exploit quasi-experimental variation (or experiments where feasible and appropriate), captured through household, community and institutional surveys. He typically matches these survey data with meso-scale secondary statistics and estimates econometric models to generate policy parameters. Dr. Pattanayak has collaborated closely with multi-lateral agencies, NGOs, governments, and local academics in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the U.S.

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

Subhrendu K. Pattanayak