Animal Welfare Economics: Wildlife Populations, Welfare Metrics, and Policy

Wild animals face suffering on an enormous scale - from habitat loss and accelerating pressures of climate change to predation, disease, and starvation. However, this dimension of animal welfare remains largely absent from both scientific research and public policy. Humans, too, are a source of predation pressure, whether through habitat disruption, wildlife management, or illegal hunting that imposes mortality at the population level. This project applies economic frameworks (cost-benefit analysis, welfare metrics, data collection) to questions about wild animal welfare, asking: how do we measure wellbeing at the population level, and what interventions - if any - are justifiable and tractable?

Students will contribute to a faculty-led research agenda at the intersection of welfare economics and public policy. Students' work will directly inform research outputs with real implications for how we think about humanity's responsibilities toward wild animals. This is a field early enough that undergraduate contributions can genuinely move the needle. 

Depending on the stage of the project and the students' skills, outcomes may include one or more of the following:

1. An economic literature review synthesizing existing welfare metrics applied to non-human animals
2. A dataset on wild animal population and regulations
3. A policy brief or white paper on a specific intervention
4. A research conference poster suitable for undergraduate research showcases
5. A structured cost-effectiveness analysis of a wildlife welfare intervention 

Animal Welfare Economics, Data Collection, Policy Analysis, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Economics