Dr Katherine Simpson
- Lecturer in One Health and Environmental Economics (Health Economics & Health Technology Assessment)
email:
Katherine.Simpson@glasgow.ac.uk
Clarice Pears Building, School of Health & Wellbeing, 90 Byres Road, Glasgow, United Kingdom, G12 8TB
Biography
Environmental and One Health Economist
I have over 10 years of research experience in interdisciplinary collaboration with ecologists, environmental scientists and policy specialists. I have built a considerable international reputation as an expert in biodiversity offset market design, agri-environment scheme design and more broadly the application of economic methods to terrestrial and marine conservation management.
I joined HETHA as a Lecturer in August 2023 having previously worked as a Research Associate (Environmental Economics) in the School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine since 2018.
My background is in applied environmental economics with a BSc from the University of York (2010), MSc by Research in Marine Conservation from the University of York (2011) and PhD in Economics from the University of Stirling (2015). Previously I have worked as a research assistant in economics at the University of Stirling and as Project Manager for the EU-H2020 ATLAS project in the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh.
My time is divided between the School of Health & Wellbeing and the School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine where I co-lead the Environmental and One Health Economics Special Interest Group.
My research ambition is to become a world leader in the design and implementation of environmental markets globally, with interdisciplinary methods and thinking at its core. This research necessitates an interdisciplinary approach across ecology, economics and social sciences.
Research interests
Research Interests
- Nature and environmental market design: focus on biodiversity net gain and voluntary carbon markets
- Agri-environment scheme design: focus on payment for modelled results compared to payment for actions
- Valuation of coastal and marine ecosystem services in the context of future management and human health & wellbeing
- Applying economic methods to assist with conservation management decisions
- Role of nature, green space and blue space in human health and wellbeing
- Methods: discrete choice experiments and choice modelling; contingent valuation and agent-based modelling
Current Research Projects
- Use of Environmental / Nature Markets as a tool to mobilise private financing of nature-based solutions in response to the global climate and biodiversity crisis.
- Development of novel ecological-economic models of land use change under alternative environmental market design scenarios and varying policy designs (including incentive mechanisms).
- Application of discrete choice experiment surveys to understand the effect of changing UK gambling legislation on gambling expenditure and other goods and services.
- Understanding the value of ecosystem goods and services in the coastal and marine environment to assist with marine protected area / reserve design and designation.
Previous Research
- Optimising biodiversity offset markets for economic and ecological benefits. Drawing from pollution trading literature and the USA wetland mitigation banking market, I developed a framework of key design parameters for successful biodiversity offset markets. Through the construction of a comprehensive ecological-economic modelling framework, examined how variations in these design parameters influence real-world landscape outcomes.
- I have extensively studied the role of stated policy and payment consequentiality and the role of prior knowledge, information and learning within stated preference survey design and effects on respondent willingness to pay.
- Application of discrete choice experiments to provide evidence to the EU Commission on the valuation and implementation of alternative management measures for the marine environment.
Funding
Designing Biodiversity Markets for Nature Recovery (2022) NERC. Co-Investigator. Award value: £19,734
Rewarding landowners and land managers for conserving biodiversity (2022) NERC. Co-Investigator. Award value: £48,572
Effect: Environmental public goods From Farming through Effective Contract Targeting (2019 – 2023). EU H2020. Named Researcher. U of G funding share: euro 448,500.
Biodiversity offset markets for wetland conservation (2017 – 2019) Leverhulme Trust. Named Researcher. Award value: £108,000
Google Scholar - Publications Profile
Research groups
Grants
Grants and Awards listed are those received whilst working with the University of Glasgow.
- Rewarding landowners and land managers for conserving biodiversity
Natural Environment Research Council
2022 - 2022
Supervision
I am always interested in setting up new collaborations, across the fields of environmental and health economics. Please feel free to contact me to discuss ideas.
Teaching
BIOL5325 - Economic Tools for Conservation (2019 onwards)
Choice Experiments for Health Economics 2023/24 (2023-24)
Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Conservation (2020 onwards)
Applying Ecology (Conservation and Management of Populations) (2023-24)
Business and the Biosciences (2023-24)