Economics of Sustainability

We Provide our High Impact Sustainability Partners with Analytical Muscle Power


One of our firm’s major focuses is sustainability, with clients who work in human rights, animal welfare, sustainable food systems, the alternative protein industry, and more. We perform scholarly research in order to offer the best solutions, and, importantly, to contribute to the scientific community. We believe it is imperative to approach the complexity behind sustainability immediately and with a strong partnership between academic research and industry applications. Check out some of our projects below:

The Role of the U.S. in Deforestation and Violence in Brazil
(Clients: Seeding Sovereignty and the Animal Legal Defense Fund)

Our team studied the effects of soy production and international trade on deforestation and violence against indigenous communities in Brazil. One of our team members, Dr. Santiago Guisasola, who is currently based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, contributed via hands-on data collection from local organizations. Read more here.


Alternative Protein Labor Transition Analysis
(Client: The Good Food Institute)

We are currently working on a model of labor market transition dynamics between conventional protein industry and the alternative protein industry under the scenario of increased substitution of meat alternatives in the near future.


The Effects of Direct and Indirect Subsidies in the US Beef Industry
(Client: Animal Legal Defense Fund)

We built a dynamic computable markov perfect equilibrium model of US beef industry along the lines of Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1993) in which we compute multi-sector dynamics (confined vs unconfined feeding operations) under policy interventions such as meat tax (environmental and public health), minimum space requirement or civil enforcement. (See Hopenhayn, H., & Rogerson, R. (1993). Job Turnover and Policy Evaluation: A General Equilibrium Analysis. Journal of Political Economy, 101(5), 915-938.)


Economic Analysis of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service’s Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (Client: Center for Food Safety)

We analyzed the economics behind the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service’s 2020 regulation regarding organic livestock and poultry practices, and analyzed its implications for producers and consumers in the short- and the long-term. Read more here.


Economic Analysis of Proposition 12 in California
(Client: Humane Society of the United States)

Our team has conducted an analysis of the economic factors that should have been considered in order to properly assess the effects of Prop 12 on producers, consumers and interstate commerce.