About

Jonathan Hughes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests encompass energy, environmental economics, and empirical industrial organization. His current research focuses on the consequences of the adoption of environmental policies in energy markets, climate change policy, and the dynamics within gasoline, electricity, and renewable energy markets. Hughes's work also explores the land use aspects of biofuel production and the impacts of climate change policy in the transportation sector. He holds a PhD from the University of California at Davis, an MS from Cornell University, and a BS from Duke University. His academic background and research contributions are centered on understanding the economic and environmental implications of energy and climate policies.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Geography
• Engineering
• Political Science
• Economics
• Environmental resource management
• Demography
• Environmental science
• Data science
• Natural resource economics
• Ecology
• Medicine
• Business
• Environmental planning
• Environmental health
• Biology
• Transport engineering

Selected publications

• Managing no-shows in public resource allocation: The economics of campground reservations

  Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · 2025-11-04

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Topological origin of horizon temperature via the Chern–Gauss–Bonnet theorem

  Письма в Журнал экспериментальной и теоретической физики / JETP Letters (Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters) · 2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This paper establishes a connection between the Hawking temperature of spacetime horizons and global topological invariants, specifically the Euler characteristic of Wick-rotated Euclidean spacetimes. This is demonstrated for both de Sitter and Schwarzschild, where the compactification of the near-horizon geometry allows for a direct application of the Chern–Gauss–Bonnet theorem. For de Sitter, a simple argument connects the Gibbon–Hawking temperature of the Bunch–Davies state to the global thermal de Sitter temperature. This establishes that spacetime thermodynamics are a consequence of the geometrical structure of spacetime itself, therefore suggesting a deep connection between global topology and semi-classical analysis.

  PublisherDOI

• Organs of the Groote Kerk (1737-1957): A micro-historical perspective

  Vir die Musiekleier · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Urban Nature Indexes tool offers comprehensive and flexible approach to monitoring urban ecological performance

  npj Urban Sustainability · 2024-04-03 · 15 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract We present the Urban Nature Indexes (UNI), a comprehensive tool that measures urban ecological performance under one standard framework linked to global commitments. The UNI was developed by interdisciplinary experts and evaluated by practitioners from diverse cities to capture each city’s ecological footprint from local to global scale. The UNI comprises six themes (consumption drivers, human pressures, habitat status, species status, nature’s contributions to people, and governance responses) that encompass measurable impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, pollution, consumption, water management, and equity within one comprehensive system. Cities then adapt the UNI to their context and capacity by selecting among indicator topics within each theme. This adaptability and holistic approach position the UNI as an essential instrument for nature-positive transformations. With the institutional support of IUCN, the UNI offers an opportunity for cities to assess and enhance their contributions towards a more sustainable and biodiverse future.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A horizon scan of biological conservation issues for 2025

  Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2024-12-05 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  We discuss the outcomes of our 16th horizon scan of issues that are novel or represent a considerable step-change and have the potential to substantially affect conservation of biological diversity in the coming decade. From an initial 96 topics, our international panel of 32 scientists and practitioners prioritised 15 issues. Technological advances are prominent, including metal and non-metal organic frameworks, deriving rare earth elements from macroalgae, synthetic gene drives in plants, and low-emission cement. We include new insights into accelerated impacts of changes to Antarctic ice masses and air and water quality. We hope that anticipating and mitigating negative impacts, and making best use of new opportunities related to these issues, will contribute to better outcomes for biological diversity.

  PublisherDOI

• The Urban Nature Indexes (UNI): A New, Flexible Tool to Comprehensively Monitor Urban Ecological Performance

  Research Square · 2023-09-21 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract We present the Urban Nature Indexes (UNI), a comprehensive tool that measures urban ecological performance under one standard framework linked to global commitments. The UNI was developed by interdisciplinary experts and evaluated by practitioners from diverse cities to capture each city’s ecological footprint from local to global scale. The UNI comprises six themes (consumption drivers, human pressures, habitat status, species status, nature’s contributions to people, and governance responses) that encompass measurable impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, pollution, consumption, water management, and equity within one comprehensive system. Cities then adapt the UNI to their context and capacity by selecting among indicator topics within each theme. This adaptability and holistic approach position the UNI as an essential instrument for nature-positive transformations. With the institutional support of IUCN, the UNI offers an unprecedented opportunity for cities to assess and enhance their contributions towards a more sustainable and biodiverse future.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Demand for Rarity: Evidence from a Collectible Good*

  Journal of Industrial Economics · 2022-02-28 · 21 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Markets for art, coins and other collectibles, culinary delicacies and eco‐tourism suggest that consumers value the rarity of many goods. While empirical evidence supports higher prices for rare goods, isolating the value of rarity has proven difficult. I analyze prices for a collectible card game and show goods that are designated as rare trade at higher prices than functionally equivalent substitutes. Importantly, I use novel features of this market to account for scarcity, observed and unobserved product characteristics and separately identify rarity effects. These results have important implications for markets ranging from luxury goods to conservation of endangered species.

  PublisherDOI

• Decline in Traffic Congestion Increased Crash Severity in the Wake of COVID-19

  Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board · 2022 · 45 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Transport engineering
  • Demography

  Highway fatalities are a leading cause of death in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. Using highly detailed crash, speed, and flow data, we show highway travel and motor vehicle crashes fell substantially in California during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we also show the frequency of severe crashes increased owing to lower traffic congestion and higher highway speeds. This "speed effect" is largest in counties with high pre-existing levels of congestion, and we show it partially or completely offsets the "VMT effect" of reduced vehicle miles traveled on total fatalities. During the first eleven weeks of the COVID-19 response, highway driving decreased by approximately 22% and total crashes decreased by 49%. While average speeds increased by a modest 2 to 3 mph across the state, they increased between 10 and 15 mph in several counties. The proportion of severe crashes increased nearly 5 percentage points, or 25%. While fatalities decreased initially following restrictions, increased speeds mitigated the effect of lower vehicle miles traveled on fatalities, yielding little to no reduction in fatalities later in the COVID period.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A metric for spatially explicit contributions to science-based species targets

  Nature Ecology & Evolution · 2021 · 170 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Data science
  PublisherDOI

• The relative importance of COVID‐19 pandemic impacts on biodiversity conservation globally

  Conservation Biology · 2021 · 50 citations

  • Political Science
  • Geography
  • Environmental planning

  Abstract The COVID‐19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of human society and endeavor; the natural world and its conservation have not been spared. Through a process of expert consultation, we identified and categorized, into 19 themes and 70 subthemes, the ways in which biodiversity and its conservation have been or could be affected by the pandemic globally. Nearly 60% of the effects have been broadly negative. Subsequently, we created a compendium of all themes and subthemes, each with explanatory text, and in August 2020 a diverse group of experienced conservationists with expertise from across sectors and geographies assessed each subtheme for its likely impact on biodiversity conservation globally. The 9 subthemes ranked highest all have a negative impact. These were, in rank order, governments sidelining the environment during their economic recovery, reduced wildlife‐based tourism income, increased habitat destruction, reduced government funding, increased plastic and other solid waste pollution, weakening of nature‐friendly regulations and their enforcement, increased illegal harvest of wild animals, reduced philanthropy, and threats to survival of conservation organizations. In combination, these impacts present a worrying future of increased threats to biodiversity conservation but reduced capacity to counter them. The highest ranking positive impact, at 10, was the beneficial impact of wildlife‐trade restrictions. More optimistically, among impacts ranked 11‐20, 6 were positive and 4 were negative. We hope our assessment will draw attention to the impacts of the pandemic and, thus, improve the conservation community's ability to respond to such threats in the future.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen P. Holland

  Yale University

  41 shared

• Christopher R. Knittel

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  39 shared

• Nathan Parker

  Arizona State University

  16 shared

• James Bushnell

  12 shared

• Aaron Smith

  8 shared

• Daniel Kaffine

  University of Colorado Boulder

  7 shared

• William J. Sutherland

  7 shared

• Ana S. L. Rodrigues

  Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive

  5 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California at Davis

• M.S.

  Cornell University

• B.S.

  Duke University