Rate My Professor Klaus Moeltner

Klaus Moeltner is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech, where he joined in 2011 as Associate Professor and was promoted to full Professor in 2015. He previously served as Associate Professor (2006-2010) and Assistant Professor (2000-2006) in the Department of Resource Economics at the University of Nevada, Reno. Additional professional experience includes Visiting Scholar at the Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA (2010), and Visiting Instructor at the Free University of Amsterdam (2009) and University of Innsbruck (2008, 2009). Moeltner holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington (2000), an M.A. in Economics from the University of Washington (1998), an M.A. in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (1994), and an M.S. in Environmental Planning & Engineering from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria (1990).

An environmental economist, Moeltner's research specializations include valuation of natural resources and amenities, applied econometrics, economic analytics, recreation demand, health impacts of wildfire smoke, urban water use, wetland and water quality valuation, harmful algal blooms, and housing market studies related to coastal flooding, watershed restoration, and forest damage. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed to book chapters. Key publications include "Bayesian Nonlinear Meta Regression for Benefit Transfer" (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2019), "Spatial dimensions of water quality value in New England River Networks" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023), "Harmful algal blooms and toxic air: The economic value of improved forecasts" (Marine Resource Economics, 2023), "Locally-weighted meta-regression and benefit transfer" (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2023), and "Wildfire Smoke and Health Impacts: A Closer Look at Fire Attributes and their Marginal Effects" (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2013). As PI or co-PI, he has secured over $7 million in grants. Awards include the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Distinguished 10 or more years Graduate Teaching Award (2023), Virginia Association of Economists Best Paper Award (2018), and European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Best Paper Award (2014). He served as Director of the Graduate Program (2017-2022), is Co-Editor of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2022-present), and participated in a 2024 White House roundtable on Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions.