Jacob Hochard

Jake Hochard is an applied natural resource economist and returned to the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources in 2020 after earning a PhD in economics from the University of Wyoming in 2015.

From 2015-2020, Jake was an assistant professor and research scientist with East Carolina University’s Department of Economics and Coastal Studies Institute and a faculty fellow with the US Environmental Protection Agency, North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, and Center for Natural Hazards Research.

Jake’s work combines geospatial analysis, mathematical modeling, and empirical analysis to examine feedback between natural and human systems with the goal of engaging with stakeholders to support natural resource policy and management decisions. Recent projects funded by the National Science Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, United States Department of Agriculture, and other sources focus on constructing a set of Wyoming Natural Wealth Accounts, assessing the downstream environmental and human health impacts of animal agriculture, measuring the effect of natural disasters on birth outcomes, and synthesizing large datasets to predict groundwater contamination risks following major storm events.