Associate Professor

About

  • Role

    Faculty

  • Position

    • Associate Professor
    • SoGES Faculty

  • Concentration

    • Environmental
    • Ecological and Resource Economics
    • Development

  • Department

    • Economics

  • Education

    • 2000 Ph.D. Economics, University College London, University of London, UK

Biography

Joanne Burgess Barbier is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Colorado State University, where she is also affiliated with the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.  Dr Burgess is an environmental and natural resource economist with special interests in forest land use, wildlife management, trade and environment, and sustainability.  She has been a consultant and policy analyst for various national, international, and non-governmental agencies, including UN organizations, the World Bank, and the OECD.  She has authored over 45 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters, written 5 books, and published in popular journals. Dr Burgess has over 6,900 citations to her work. The textbook, Economics for a Sustainable World: Introduction to Natural Resource and Environmental Economics by E.B. Barbier and J.C. Burgess, 2025, is written for undergraduate students with little or no exposure to economics. This introductory textbook offers a new perspective on environmental economics for the 21st century. Previously published is the book Economics of the SDGs: Putting the Sustainable Development Goals into Practice, by E.B. Barbier and J.C. Burgess. 2021 Palgrave Macmillan, London and New York.

Publications

Books

  1. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2025. Economics for a Sustainable World: Introduction to Natural Resource and Environmental Economics. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108973045 
  2. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2021. Economics of the SDGs: Putting the Sustainable Development Goals into Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, London, and New York, 209 pp. https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030786977
  3. Barbier, E.B., Burgess, J.C., Bishop, J.T. and Aylward, B.A. Reissued 2021 (1st ed. 1994). The Economics of the Tropical Timber Trade. Earthscan Publications, London, 179 pp. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429352249
  4. Barbier, E.B., Burgess, J.C. and Folke, C. 2019 (1st 1994). Paradise Lost? The Ecological Economics of Biodiversity. Earthscan Publications, London, 267 pp. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429342219.
  5. Barbier, E.B., Burgess, J.C., Swanson, T.M. and Pearce, D.W. 2013 (1st 1990). Elephants, Economics and Ivory. Earthscan Publications, London, 154 pp. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315066264.

Journal Articles

  1. Barbier, E.B. and Burgess, J.C. 2025. Economics of Nature-Based Solutions for Mitigating Climate Change. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 19(2). 19(2). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/735742.
  2. Burgess, J.C. and Barbier, E.B. 2025. "Sustainability and Environmental Economics: A Status Quo." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance. In press.
  3. Barbier, E., & Burgess, J. (2025, July 16). Policy and Environmental Economics: Fallacies and New Directions. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance. https://oxfordre.com/economics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190625979.001.0001/acrefore-9780190625979-e-981.
  4. Barbier, E.B. and Burgess, J.C. 2024. Economics of Water Scarcity and Efficiency. Sustainability 2024, 16(19), 8550; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198550
  5. Smith, N., Burgess, K., Clemens, K.R., Burgess, J.C. Lavoie, A. and Solomon, J.N. 2023. “Serving conservation from reef to plate: Barriers and opportunities for invasive lionfish consumption in restaurants.” Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 2023; 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3933
  6. Barbier, E.B. and Burgess, J.C. 2023. “Natural Capital, Institutional Quality and SDG Progress in Emerging
    Market and Developing Economies.” Sustainability. 15, 3055. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043055.
  7. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2022. “Climate and Development: The Role of the Sustainable Development Goals.” Chapter 3 in A. Markandya and D. Rubbelke, eds. Climate and Development. World Scientific Series on Environmental, Energy and Climate Economics: Volume 1. World Scientific, New Jersey, pp. 67-90. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811240553_0003
  8. Burgess, J.C. 2022. “Economics of the biodiversity convention”. In Kahn, J. R. (Ed.). (2022). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Environmental Economics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.421
  9. Barbier, E.B. and Burgess, J.C. 2021. Economics of Peatlands Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainable Management - A Policy Report for the Global Peatlands Initiative. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi. https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/37262/PeatCRSM.pdf
  10. Barbier E.B., Burgess J.C. 2021. “Institutional Quality, Governance and Progress towards the SDGs”. Sustainability 13(21):11798. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111798
  11. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2021 "Sustainability, the systems approach, and the sustainable development goals". Special issue "Economics and the environment since the 1950s", Cahiers d'économie politique/Papers in political economy 79(1):31-59. https://www.cairn.info/revue-cahiers-d-economie-politique-2021-1-page-31.htm
  12. Barbier, E.B and J.C. Burgess. 2021. “Sustainable Use of the Environment, Planetary Boundaries and Market Power.” Sustainability 13:949. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020949
  13. Burgess, J.C. 2021. Economics of the biodiversity convention. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.421
  14. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2020. “Sustainability and Development after COVID-19.” World Development 135:105082. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X20302084
  15. Iverson, T.W., Burgess, J.C. and E.B. Barbier. 2020. “Are Sub-National Agreements for Carbon Abatement Effective?” Energies, 13, 3675. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13143675
  16. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2019. “Scarcity and Safe Operating Spaces: The Example of Natural Forests” Environmental and Resource Economics 74(3):1077-1099. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10640-019-00360-9
  17. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2019. “Sustainable Development Goal Indicators: Analyzing Trade-offs and Complementarities.” World Development 122:295-305. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X19301482
  18. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2018. “How Can Sovereign Wealth Funds Mitigate Natural Capital Depreciation in Developing Countries?” World Economics 19(4), December. https://www.world-economics-journal.com/Journal/Papers/How%20Can%20Sovereign%20Wealth%20Funds%20Mitigate%20Natural%20Capital%20Depreciation%20in%20Developing%20Countries.details?ID=723
  19. Barbier, E.B., J.C. Burgess and T.J. Dean. 2018. “Response – Conservation accord.” Science 360 (6394): 1196-1197. DOI: 10.1126/science.aau1746. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6394/1196/tab-article-info
  20. Barbier, E.B., J.C. Burgess and T.J. Dean. 2018. “How to pay for saving biodiversity.” Science 360 (6388): 486-488. DOI: 10.1126/science.aar3454. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6388/486.full
  21. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2018. “Policies to support environmental risk management in investment decisions.” International Journal of Global Environmental Issues. 17(2/3):117-129. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJGENVI.2018.091461
  22. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2017. “Innovative Corporate Initiatives to Reduce Climate Risk: Lessons from East Asia.” Sustainability. 10(1): 13 doi:10.3390/su10010013 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/13
  23. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2017. “Depletion of the global carbon budget: A user cost approach.” Environment and Development Economics 22(6):658-673. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X17000055
  24. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2017. “Natural Resource Economics, Planetary Boundaries and Strong Sustainability”. Sustainability. 9(10): 1858. doi:10.3390/su9101858 http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1858
  25. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2017. “The Sustainable Development Goals and the Systems Approach to Sustainability.” Economics (2017-28):1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2017-28
  26. Barbier, E.B. and J.C. Burgess. 2017. “Economic Principles for ‘Spaceship Earth’”. Resources 194, Spring. http://www.rff.org/research/publications/economic-principles-spaceship-earth

Courses

  • Econ 240: Economics of Environmental Sustainability

    Why does environmental degradation occur, and how can we make our economies more sustainable and inclusive? Economics can help us understand the concept of environmental sustainability, explain the underlying causes of environmental degradation, and provide policy solutions for sustainable management of our environmental goods and services. This introductory course is designed for students with little or no background in economics, as well as economics students interested in the application of economic principles to environmental sustainability.