Additional Information on Resources For the Future
RFF’s areas of research — in addition to those listed on the main profile page — also include:
- Development and Environment: In partnership with the Environmental Economics Unit at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, RFF “examines the performance of innovative policy approaches, including public disclosure, economic incentives, and voluntary programs for reducing pollution; the environmental impacts of the small firms and how to mitigate them; and the causes of deforestation and possible policy responses.”
- Ecosystems: RFF researchers strive to develop methods to “measure and value the services provided by ecosystems, such as water purification, coastal storm and flood protection, and air pollution mitigation, while examining the effectiveness of conservation strategies for forests, fisheries, water, and other natural resources.”
- Energy: RFF’s research on energy focuses on electric power, transportation, and unconventional fuels. It also evaluates means of promoting “new, efficient technologies and the sustainable development of energy resources.”
- Food and Agriculture: Current areas of research at RFF include “options for strengthening risk management systems for food safety, water allocation between agriculture and urban use, the interaction between energy markets and agricultural production, and the impacts of agricultural land use.”
- Policy and Analysis: RFF experts analyze the effectiveness of various local, state, regional, and federal policy approaches designed to address environmental challenges.
- Risk Management: Through methodological and policy research, RFF experts work to “bridge the gap between theoretical advances in risk and uncertainty assessment and their effective application to real world policy.”
- Space: Examining “the uniqueness of outer space as a natural resource,” RFF evaluates policies that address space debris and pollution, “effective management of outer space,” and the value of environmental information collected by satellites.
- Waste Management: Research at RFF looks at “the full range of policy challenges” related to hazardous and non-hazardous waste, from the costs and benefits of programs that encourage recycling, to issues related to contaminated sites such as waste and water treatment plants and nuclear facilities.
- Water: RFF scholars analyze the performance of policy instruments for improving water quality both in the United States and in other countries; they also examine solutions for inefficient marine and water management practices.
In 1979, RFF was instrumental in the founding of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE), which currently has more than 800 members from nearly three-dozen nations, drawn from academic institutions, the public sector, and private industry.