Jessie Lu

I am a fifth year PhD candidate in the Sustainable Development Program at Columbia University. I combine economic reduced form methods with ecological modeling to study how ecosystem degradation impacts human welfare and how policy decisions impact environmental quality. I am particularly interested in these dynamics in the context of cities, health, and/or development.

Prior to my PhD, I worked at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Center for Global Development. I hold a BA in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Email me at jl6001[at]columbia[dot]edu. You can access my CV here.

Active Projects

Biodiversity Loss and Beef Production in Southern Africa

Damages from the Emerald Ash Borer: Invasive Species, Urban Forest Loss, and Social Inequality

Physical and Mental Health Benefits from Urban Parks (with Abigail Dow and Graeme Peterson)

Presentations

Summer Conference, AERE, 2025

Environmental Economics PhD Workshop, London School of Economics, 2024

Summer School in Environmental and Energy Economics, UC Berkeley, 2024

Teaching

Human Ecology (PhD Level), 2024 & 2025

Gender and Applied Economics (Undergraduate Level), 2023