About

Dr. Carson Reeling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. His research focuses on societal value statements and measuring the willingness to preserve public well-being, as well as societal values and mask usage for COVID-19 control in the US. He has contributed to understanding the societal impacts of COVID-19, including mask-wearing behaviors and community-level dynamics related to wind energy development. Dr. Reeling's work also encompasses broader issues in agricultural economics, such as land use, farmland markets, and the societal implications of energy and environmental policies.

Research topics

• Economics
• Business
• Marketing
• Environmental economics
• Environmental science
• Microeconomics
• Agroforestry
• Agricultural science
• Biology
• Management
• Agronomy
• Natural resource economics
• Geography
• Environmental resource management
• Ecology
• Environmental planning

Selected publications

• Review Paper — Economics and Policy of Point-Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Trading Programs

  Water Economics and Policy · 2025-12-01

  articleSenior author

  Pollution permit trading is of interest due to its potential to meet pollution control targets at minimum cost without market designers knowing polluters’ abatement costs. This potential has been substantially realized in applications to air emissions but, with a very few exceptions, not to water quality protection. Yet substantial interest in water quality trading remains. We explore the economic literature on water quality trading, focusing on class of trades generating the most interest: trades between point sources and agricultural nonpoint sources, or PS-NPS trading. We describe how NPS pollution processes and institutional environments create unique market design challenges, prompting the development of a specialized literature. The principal challenges stem from NPS emissions being unobservable and stochastic, preventing actual NPS emissions from serving the traditional role of a quantifiable, tradeable property right. Additionally, PS-NPS trading programs generally operate in complex institutional environments that limit the ability to regulate agricultural sources and also include pre-existing environmental policies. We describe that, while the integration of PS and NPS control efforts under PS-NPS markets has the potential to improve the overall efficiency of pollution control, good market design is key to realizing these gains. Well-designed markets will incentivize trades so that cost-reducing abatement reallocations do occur, with these trades either reducing or not substantially increasing environmental risks brought about by NPS uncertainties.

  PublisherDOI

• Modeling recreation and tourism demand using crowdsourced data: An application to visitation statistics from the eBird project

  Tourism Management · 2025-08-08 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• CARBON MARKETS OR SOMETHING OF THE SORT

  Purdue University Press eBooks · 2025-11-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Additionality of solar tax incentives under community choice aggregation in Ohio

  Agricultural and Resource Economics Review · 2025-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Abstract In the State of Ohio, the electric regulatory landscape permits local governments to become energy suppliers to residents and small businesses through community choice aggregation (CCA). Some CCAs provide enrollees 100% renewable electricity. Concurrently, the federal government offers an income tax credit (ITC) for the purchase of a solar array. With policy incentives, it is important to ensure they encourage behavior beyond the baseline scenario without the ITC. This is known as “additionality.” Renewable aggregation programs may crowd out the benefits of the ITC, violating additionality. This paper assesses additionality of the ITC in the context of Ohio’s CCA programs. The actual additionality can depend on whether renewable energy is already being supplied to the site of a solar array. Hence, we study the relationship between CCA and solar adoption probability to determine whether tax incentives are additional. Using panel data methods and post-estimation simulations, we discern if additionality is violated where these programs overlap. We find aggregation programs increase the probability of solar adoption and that $0.79 of every dollar spent on the income tax credit in Ohio is non-additional. This will help policymakers determine the efficacy of funds allocated to their programs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Zonal RUM Model to Value Recreation Sites with Aggregate Visitation Data

  Land Economics · 2024-04-22 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  <h3>Abstract</h3> This paper develops a zonal random utility maximization (RUM) model of recreation demand from visitor counts and census data. In contrast, traditional RUM models of recreation demand use individual trip data collected through surveys. After demonstrating proof-of-concept with a Monte Carlo analysis, we apply the zonal RUM model to data on hunting and fishing trips. Our results confirm that the zonal model produces preference parameters and willingness-to-pay estimates close to those from the traditional model. The zonal RUM model provides a practical substitute to the traditional model in applications that lack access to individual data.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Targeted recreational hunting can reduce animal-vehicle collisions and generate substantial revenue for wildlife management agencies

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2024-05-22 · 7 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Willingness-to-Pay for Rationed Goods: Bobcat Harvest Permits in Indiana

  Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics · 2024-01-22

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract We use contingent valuation to estimate hunter and trapper willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical bobcat harvest permit being considered in Indiana. Harvest permits would be rationed, with limits on aggregate and individual harvests. A model of permit demand shows that WTP may be subject to “congestion effects” which attenuate welfare gains from relaxing harvest limits. Intuitively, relaxing limits may directly change an individual’s expected harvest and, hence, WTP. Participation may subsequently change, with congestion offsetting welfare increases. These effects may lead to apparent scope insensitivity that may be endemic in the context of rationed goods.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The recreational value of birding and crane abundance

  Agricultural and Resource Economics Review · 2024-11-19 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract We estimate the economic value of birding, which is an important ecosystem service produced by bird populations in recreation areas. Our research identifies the link between values and species richness as well as the abundance of the sandhill crane ( Grus canadensis ), which migrates each year through our study area. Sandhill crane stopovers at state and federal wildlife areas can attract many birders. We estimate this nonmarket value using the zonal travel cost method and data from the eBird project on wildlife areas in Indiana. We compare crane counts based on eBird with those from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). We find important differences depending on whether we use eBird or DNR counts. On average, birders are willing to pay $28 per trip to sites in the study area and less than $1 per trip to see an additional species, while the value of 1000 more cranes is either about $1 or $10 per trip depending on how abundance is measured.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparison of conservation instruments under long-run yield uncertainty and farmer risk aversion

  European Review of Agricultural Economics · 2023-09-06 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Consumers and policymakers are increasingly concerned with environmental sustainability in food production. Yet rates of adoption of many conservation practices vary and are generally low. Existing instruments for practice adoption increase farmers’ expected net benefits from sustainable practices but do not manage associated risks which may be critical to risk-averse farmers. We build a model to characterize practice adoption by risk-averse farmers given practice-driven, long-run yield dynamics under various instruments, including price premiums, lump-sum subsidies and green insurance. We find rich scale and compositional effects that differ across instruments and that green insurance is significantly more cost-effective under plausible conditions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Modeling Feedstock Performance and Conversion Operations

  2023-11-30

  reportOpen access

  The objective of this project was to model formation of an aqueous slurry of crop residue, i.e., obtain a liquefied form of corn stover that may be pumped and processed at high solids loadings. The goal of the research was to define conditions that result in liquefaction and relate these to the chemical and physical characteristics of the biomass material. The research plan addressed research gaps related to the biomass component variability and the feedstock conversion interface. These gaps occur with respect to processing that is carried out prior to biomass entering the pretreatment step as shown in Figure ES1. Specifically, the three aims addressed were: (a) Investigation of the physical and chemical characteristics associated with individual tissue components of the leaves, husks, stems and cobs from corn stover, compared to their formation into pellets with respect to their potential for liquefaction (i.e., slurry formation). (b) Determination of how the characteristics of different forms of lignocellulosic biomass change during their preprocessing into pellets, when the pellets are used to form mixable (i.e., low yield stress) slurries of corn stover at high loadings, prior to pretreatment; and (c) Quantification of slurry-forming conditions by defining dimensionless chemical engineering parameters and new mathematical models that predict rheology of flowable slurries of corn stover, before pretreatment, at up to 300 g/L solids loading. Formation of highly concentrated, fluid slurries directly from corn stover pellets at the plant gate - before any other processing is carried out (such as high temperature pretreatment) – achieves rheology that enables the stover to be transported as a pumped fluid rather than as a conveyed solid material. This approach will enhance operability of biorefineries by decreasing downtime due to plugging and by minimizing flow interruptions due to difficulty in solids handling encountered when the biomass is conveyed as loose solids.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Valentin Verdier

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  59 shared

• Frank Lupi

  59 shared

• Richard D. Horan

  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

  13 shared

• Richard T. Melstrom

  Loyola University Chicago

  9 shared

• Benjamin M. Gramig

  9 shared

• Richard D. Horan

  Michigan State University

  6 shared

• William R. Moomaw

  5 shared

• David Finnoff

  University of Wyoming

  4 shared

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

  Michigan State University

  2015

• Master of Science, Agricultural Economics

  Purdue University

  2011

• Bachelor of Arts, Economics

  University of San Diego

  2009

Awards & honors

• James C. Snyder Memorial Lecture
• AGEC Distinguished Ag Alumni
• Purdue Ag Alumni Association