My research makes three major contributions to the academic body of knowledge and society. First, my analyses identify opportunities for improved economic incentive-based policies that increase the value society gains from its water resources by improving the effectiveness of water markets and conservation programs. I also apply the same methods for studying other agri-environmental policies. Second, my research contributes to the non-market valuation literature by estimating theoretically rigorous empirical values for water and environmental resources. Third, I using empirical approaches, I study the cost of extreme events.
A large part of my research examines the economics of water — particularly groundwater — and the policies designed to manage it sustainably. This includes studying how farmers respond to physical constraints on extraction, how aquifer depletion affects agricultural and rural economies, and how market-based and regulatory instruments can improve water allocation. A distinctive feature of this work is the development of fully integrated hydro-economic models that couple physical hydrology with economic decision-making, rather than treating them sequentially. I also study water quality, including how salinity and other stressors interact with water scarcity to affect agricultural producers.
Selected published papers:
Bahrami, S., Rouhi Rad, M., and Nayga, R.M., “Dollars for Drops: Abatement Cost of Water for Irrigation in the Colorado River Basin.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy (2025).
Rouhi Rad, M., Suter, J.F., Manning, D.T., and Goemans, C., “Abatement Subsidies for Groundwater Conservation.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2025).
Medina, N., Rouhi Rad, M., Nozari, S., Suter, J.F., Bailey, R.T., Sahoo, D., “Water Scarcity Exacerbates the Negative Effects of Salinity on Irrigated Agriculture.” Water Resources Research (2025).
Nozari, S., Bailey, R.T., Rouhi Rad, M., Smith, G.E., Andales, A.A., Zambreski, Z.T., Tavakoli-Kivi, S., Sharda, V., Kisekka, I., Gowda, P., and Schipanski, M.E., “An Integrated Modeling Approach to Simulate Human-Crop-Groundwater Interactions in Intensively Irrigated Regions.” Environmental Modelling & Software (2024).
Rouhi Rad, M., Mieno, T., & Brozović, N., “The Role of Search Frictions and Trading Ratios in Tradable Permit Markets.” Environmental and Resource Economics (2022).
Rouhi Rad, M., Manning, D.T., Suter, J.F., Goemans, C., “Policy Leakage or Policy Benefit? Spatial Spillovers from Conservation Policies in Common Property Resources.” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2021).
Suter, J.F., Rouhi Rad, M., Manning, D.T., Goemans, C., “Groundwater depletion, climate, and the value of groundwater conservation.” Resource and Energy Economics (2021).
Mieno, T., Rouhi Rad, M., Suter, J.F., Hrozencik, A., “The Importance of Well Yield in Groundwater Demand Specifications.” Land Economics (2021).
Manning, D.T., Rouhi Rad, M., Suter, J.F., Goemans, C., “Non-market valuation in integrated modeling: The benefits of water right retirement.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2020).
Rouhi Rad, M., Haacker, E.M.K., Sharda, V., Nozari, S., Xiang, Z., Araya, A., Uddameri, V., Suter, J.F., Gowda, P., “MOD$$AT: A hydro-economic model for aquifer management in agriculture.” Agricultural Water Management (2020).
Rouhi Rad, M., Brozović, N., Foster, T., and Mieno, T., “Effects of instantaneous groundwater availability on irrigated agriculture and implications for aquifer management.” Resource and Energy Economics (2020).
Working papers:
Nozari, S., Bailey, R.T., Rouhi Rad, M., et al., “Groundwater Management Amidst a Changing Climate: A More Severe Climate Can Decrease the Value of Groundwater Conservation.” Revisions submitted at Water Resources Research.
Judd, R., Rouhi Rad, M., “Regulating Non-Point Source Pollution: Evidence from the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Policy.” Under review.
Donahue, H., Perez Quesada, G., Rouhi Rad, M., Hrozencik, R.A., Nayga, R.M., “Irrigation Organizations in the Western US: Adapting to Water Scarcity.” Under review.
My agri-environmental policy research examines how land use decisions, farm management practices, and agricultural institutions affect environmental outcomes. This includes studying the role of land tenure in shaping conservation behavior, the supply of greenhouse gas abatement from agricultural land, the adoption of water-saving irrigation technologies, and the historical legacy of federal land and water development programs. A common thread is identifying the conditions under which private incentives align — or fail to align — with socially desirable environmental outcomes, and the design of policies to close that gap.
Selected published papers:
Bahrami, S., Rouhi Rad, M., Nayga, R., “Land Tenure and Conservation in Agriculture: Evidence from United States Farm-level Data.” Land Use Policy (2025).
Lloyd-Smith, P., Adamowicz, W., Entem, A., Fenichel, E.P., Rouhi Rad, M., “The Decade after Tomorrow: Estimation of Discount Rates from Realistic Temporal Decisions.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2021).
Working papers:
Manning, D.T., Rouhi Rad, M., Ogle, S., “Greenhouse Gas Abatement Supply on Agricultural Land.” Under review.
Kang, N., Rouhi Rad, M., Nayga, R., Hrozencik, A.R., Perez-Quesada, G., “Impact of the Reclamation Act on Agricultural Development and Population Dynamics in the Western United States.” Revisions requested at American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Yang, W., Rouhi Rad, M., Bahrami, S., Hrozencik, A., Nayga, R., “The Value of Improving Canal Conveyance Efficiency.” In preparation.
Natural resources are a form of capital, and this perspective has important implications for how we measure welfare, guide investment, and design conservation policy. My research in this area estimates the value of natural capital — including groundwater, ecosystems, and environmental amenities — using theoretically grounded non-market valuation methods. A unifying theme is that natural and produced capital are often complements rather than substitutes, meaning degradation of natural capital cannot simply be offset by investing in infrastructure or technology.
Selected published papers:
Rouhi Rad, M., Li, L., Woodward, R.T., “Non-Market Valuation of Environmental Resources: An Introduction.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance (2025).
Busari, I., Sloggy, M.R., Rouhi Rad, M., Sahoo, D., Drury, S.A., and Escobedo, F.J., “Modeling Wildfire Effects on Ecosystem Services in two Disparate California Watersheds and Communities.” Environmental Management (2025).
Rouhi Rad, M., Adamowicz, W., Entem, A., Fenichel, E.P., Lloyd-Smith, P., “Complementarity (Not Substitution) Between Natural and Produced Capital.” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2021).
Adamowicz, W., Calderon-Etter, L., Entem, A., Fenichel, E.P., Hall, J.S., Lloyd-Smith, P., Ogden, F.L., Regina, J.A., Rouhi Rad, M., and Stallard, R.F., “Assessing Ecological Infrastructure Investments.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019).
Working papers:
Bahrami, S., Rouhi Rad, M., Hrozencik, R.A., Perez Quesada, G., Nayga, R.M., “The Value of Water Access Security in Agriculture.” Revisions requested at Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
Bahrami, S., Rouhi Rad, M., Hrozencik, R.A., Perez Quesada, G., Nayga, R.M., “Well Worth It: Well Capacity and the Cost of Aquifer Depletion for Irrigated Agriculture.” Under review.
Environmental and weather extremes impose large, often poorly understood economic costs on households, communities, and agricultural producers. My research in this area examines how individuals and institutions respond to — and are affected by — extreme events including droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, (and pandemics). This work also addresses how behavioral responses to government interventions (evacuation orders, stay-at-home mandates) and long-run structural forces (rural depopulation, climate change) shape economic outcomes in affected regions.
Selected published papers:
Li, L., Hrozencik, A.R., Rouhi Rad, M., Uz, D., “The Impacts of Depopulation and Climate Change on the Cost of Rural Electric Services.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2025).
Li, L., Long, D., Rouhi Rad, M., Sloggy, M., “Stay-at-home orders and the willingness to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic: A stated-preference discrete choice experiment.” PLOS ONE (2021).
Sloggy, M., Suter, J.F., Rouhi Rad, M., Manning, D.T., Goemans, C., “Changing climate, changing minds? The effects of natural disasters on public perceptions of climate change.” Climatic Change (2021).
Hurd, B., & Rouhi Rad, M., “Estimating Economic Effects of Changes in Climate and Water Availability.” Climatic Change (2013).
Working papers:
Uz, D., Hrozencik, A.R., Rouhi Rad, M., Li, L., “Wired for Water: Climate Change and Electricity Use for Irrigation.” Reject and Resubmit.
Anand, H., Rouhi Rad, M., Shafiee-Jood, M., Alemazkoor, N., “Detecting the Signal: Causal Evidence on the Effectiveness of Hurricane Evacuation Orders.” Reject and Resubmit.
Rouhi Rad, M., Abella-Gutierrez, J., Bahrami, S., Banner, J., Cook, M., Dessler, A., et al., “Economic Costs of the Summer 2023 Heat Wave and Drought on Texas.” In preparation.