Duane Chapman

Somehow I missed the news that Duane Chapman died last summer — he was only 66 years old. Duane taught environmental economics at Cornell and did pioneering work on several fronts. It was from him that I first learned, back in the mid-1980s, about the importance of the environment-trade nexus; he was years ahead of that curve. He produced a powerful critique of a different sort of curve, Environmental Kuznets, showing that it is an artifact of looking at production rather than consumption footprints. His textbook, Environmental Economics: Theory, Application and Policy, failed to find its audience, but it was sprinkled with analytical gems found nowhere else. While his style could sometimes be a bit gruff, he was never less than warm and supportive to me. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to get to know him.