As the recipient of the 2023 UNH Sustainability Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, Ju-Chin Huang was initially unsure what to think.
“It’s funny because this a lifetime achievement award, so it feels like it’s time to retire,” Huang jokingly remarked. “But of course, I was honored to receive the award, it’s a very nice recognition.”
Huang, a professor of economics at UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, is described as a pioneer in non-market valuation. Her work includes economic valuation of environmental/non-public goods — putting a price tag on priceless things.
“You have to look at the benefits and costs to improve the sustainability of the environment, so it’s important to figure out what the benefits are when we want to do something,” Huang says. “When we talk about the environment a lot of things are public goods, it’s not like a private good that you can just purchase from the private market and there’s a price for it.”
Examples of environmental valuation projects that Huang has worked on include the economic benefits of raising national air quality standards and the benefits and costs of beach erosion control. Huang has also done projects with water quality, highway noise, solid waste management and seafood risk perceptions.
