Sarah A. Jacobson

About

Professor Sarah Jacobson is an environmental and behavioral economist who studies environmental regulations, interactions between preferences and institutions, economics education, and racial inequities. Themes in her research include regulatory incentive structures, punishment, deterrence, charity donations, reciprocity, rationality errors, discrimination, and situations in which social preferences yield inefficient outcomes. Her work uses laboratory experiments, surveys, applied theory, and observational data, and she also creates pedagogical games and tools. Sarah engages extensively with mentoring and other efforts to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity in the economics profession broadly as well as within Williams. She also does some writing and speaking on inclusion and on professional development. She has served in the leadership of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) and the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA), and currently serves on the American Economic Association (AEA) Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economic Profession. She is grateful to have been recognized with the 2026 and 2023 AEA Impactful Mentor Awards, the 2023 NAREA Award for the Promotion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the 2022 Applied Economics Teaching Resources Outstanding Article Award.

Areas of Expertise

• Environmental economics
• Behavioral economics
• Microeconomics
• Economics education

Education

B.S. Harvey Mudd College (1998)
M.A. Georgia State University, Economics (2005)
Ph.D. Georgia State University (2010)

Courses

• ECON 213/CAOS 213/ENVI 213 (F) LEC Introduction to Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
• ECON 477/ENVI 376/CAOS 477 (S) SEM Economics of Environmental Behavior

Publications

Publications – Peer-Reviewed

Searing, Elizabeth, Jacobson, Sarah, de Oliveira, Angela, and Li, Tianyi, 2026. “Fundraising as Contracting: Why Nonprofits Accept In-Kind Donations.” Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Forthcoming.

Earnhart, Dietrich, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2025. “How Does the Deterrence Effect of Regulatory Enforcement Differ between Privately and Government-Owned Facilities?” Environmental and Resource Economics, 88(3), 553-588.

Barrera, Sergio, Sajadi, Susan, Holmes, Marionette, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2024. “Valuing Identity in the Economics Classroom: What We Can Learn from STEM Education.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 38(3), 163–90.

Zhang, Luyao, Zhu, Jiasheng, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2024. “The Right Tool for the Job: Matching Active Learning Techniques to Learning Objectives.” Advances in Economics Education, 3(2), 164-187.

Williams, Miesha, Caspi, Caitlin, Jacobson, Sarah, Melstrom, Richard “Max,” Mohr, Robert, Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth, and Ware, Brandon, 2024. “A Call for Social Justice-Related Research in Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics.” Choices, 39(3), 1-7.

Ando, Amy, Awokuse, Titus, Chan, Nathan, González Ramírez, Jimena, Gulati, Sumeet, Interis, Matthew, Jacobson, Sarah, Manning, Dale, and Stolper, Samuel, 2023. “Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and Systemic Racism.” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 18(1): 143-64. RFF working paper version.

Podcast of me and Jimena talking about the paper!

Earnhart, Dietrich, Jacobson, Sarah, Kuwayama, Yusuke, and Woodward, Richard, 2023. “Discretionary Exemptions from Environmental Regulation: Regulatory Flexibility for Good or for Ill.” Land Economics, 99(2), 203.

Related RFF Common Resources blog post

Jacobson, Sarah, 2023. “Ore Money Ore Problems: A Resource Extraction Game.” Journal of Economic Education, 54(2), 158-176. (game materials)

Abidoye, Babatunde, Dissanayake, Sahan T. M., and Jacobson, Sarah, 2021. “Seeds of Learning: Uncertainty and Technology Adoption in an Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Game.” Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 3(3), 79-103. (game materials)

Winner of the 2022 AETR Outstanding Article Award.

Dissanayake, Sahan T. M., and Jacobson, Sarah, 2021. “Money Growing on Trees: A Classroom Game About Payments for Environmental Services in Community Forestry.” Journal of Economic Education, 52(3), 192-217. Additional files to play game: the whole bundle as a zip file

de Oliveira, Angela and Jacobson, Sarah, 2021. “(Im)patience by Proxy: Making Intertemporal Decisions for Others.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 182, 83-99.

Delaney, Jason, Jacobson, Sarah, and Moenig, Thorsten, 2020. “Preference Discovery.” Experimental Economics, 23(3), 694-715. (formerly circulated as “Discovered Preferences for Risky and Non-Risky Goods.”)

Dissanayake, Sahan T. M. and Jacobson, Sarah, 2016. “Policies with Varying Costs and Benefits: A Land Conservation Classroom Game.” Journal of Economic Education, 47(2), 142-160. (All supplemental materials) You can also play the game online with your class through the Economics-Games website (choose “Create a Multiplayer Game and Get Logins” then “Externalities and public goods” then “Policies with Varying Costs and Benefits…”).

Delaney, Jason and Jacobson, Sarah, 2016. “Payments or Persuasion: Common-Pool Resource Management with Price and Non-price Measures.” Environmental and Resource Economics, 65(4), 747-772. (experiment instructions, experiment data) (full-text view-only version)

Delaney, Jason and Jacobson, Sarah, 2015. “The Good of the Few: Reciprocal Acts and the Provision of a Public Bad.” Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 58, 46-55. (Experiment instructions, data and analysis files)

Jacobson, Sarah, 2014. “Temporal Spillovers in Land Conservation.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 107, Part A, 366-379. (Special issue on “Identification of Causal Effects in Environmental and Energy Economics”)

Delaney, Jason and Jacobson, Sarah, 2014. “Those Outsiders: How Downstream Externalities Affect Public Good Provision.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 67(3), 340-352 . (Experiment instructions, Homogeneous Return and Heterogeneous Return treatments)

Jacobson, Sarah and Petrie, Ragan, 2014. “Favor Trading in Public Good Provision.” Experimental Economics, 17(3), 439-460. (Experiment instructions)

Jacobson, Sarah and Petrie, Ragan, 2009. “Learning from Mistakes: What Do Inconsistent Choices over Risk Tell Us?” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 38(2), 143-158.

Other Publications

Alston, Mackenzie, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2026. “Show Us, Don’t Just Tell Us: Tips for Curating a Racially and Ethnically Inclusive Department,” The Minority Report, Issue 18, Winter 2026.

Jacobson, Sarah, and Viceisza, Angelino, 2025. “All Flowers, No Weeds in Intermediate Microeconomics: Inclusive Teaching in the Hardest Core Class,” The American Economist, 70(2), 315-329.

Dissanayake, Sahan T.M. and Jacobson, Sarah (2023), ““An Absolute Giant in the Classroom:” What We Can Learn from Thomas Tietenberg about Teaching“, International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, 17(4), 481-500.

Jacobson, Sarah, 2023. “Using Mentoring to Strengthen the Undergraduate Economics Pipeline.” CSWEP News, 2023 Issue II, 5-7.

Jacobson, Sarah, and Luedtke, Allison, 2023. “Games in the Classroom: A Symposium.” Journal of Economic Education, 54(2), 126-127.

Jacobson, Sarah, 2018. “Using Twitter to Make Your Professional Life Better, Not Worse.” Hispanic Economic Outlook. Fall 2018.

Jacobson, Sarah, 2018. “Inclusion Strengthens and Enriches the NAREA Community” (Presidential Address). Agricultural and Resource Economic Review, 47(3), 415-418.

Jacobson, Sarah, 2015. “How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Market.” Southern Economic Journal, 81(3), 843-863. (Here is the data management spreadsheet I describe in the paper.) (I circulated an older version of this as my “job market white paper”)

Alm, James and Jacobson, Sarah, 2007. “Using Laboratory Experiments in Public Economics.” National Tax Journal, 60(1), 129-152.

Working Papers

Alston, Mackenzie, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2026. “Black Lives Matter for Productivity: Heterogeneous Impacts of the 2020 Social Justice Movement on Faculty.” Latest revision: June 2026. (Previously circulated as “The Disparate Impacts of Social Justice Events on Social Science Faculty”) (Study website, online appendix) (Revise and resubmit)

Alston, Mackenzie, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2026. “You Might Break My Soul? Job Dissatisfaction among Social Science Faculty,” (Study website) (Previously shared as “Resign or Be Resigned: How Global Shocks and Employer Actions Affect High-Skilled Workers.”)

Delaney, Jason, Jacobson, Sarah, and Moenig, Thorsten, 2026. “A Theory of Preference Discovery.” Latest revision: August 2026. (Under review)

Guilfoos, Todd, Hill, Elaine, Jacobson, Sarah, and Herrman-Moran, Claire. 2025. “Racial Disparities in Exposure to Lead from School Drinking Water.” Latest revision: August 2025.

Jacobson, Sarah, and Spraggon, John, 2026. “No Refund, No Problem: Refund Institutions in a Combined Linear-Threshold Public Good Game.” Latest revision: January 2026. Experiment instructions.

Works in Progress

“From Efficiency to Inclusion: The Present and Future of Undergraduate Teaching in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics,” with Fidel Gonzalez, Jimena González-Ramírez, Sumeet Gulati, Danae Hernandez-Cortes, and Diya Mazumder.

“Race and the Perception of Criminality,” with Robynn Cox.

“What Gives? Why People Give In-Kind Instead of Cash,” with Angela de Oliveira and Elizabeth Searing.

“A New Sheriff in Town: Do Regulated Entities Update their Enforcement Perceptions during Regulatory Leadership Transitions?” with Dietrich Earnhart.

“The Aye of the Storm: How Partisan Politics Affects the Impact of Information on Voting on Environmental Legislation,” with Jacob Shuman.

Permanent Working Paper

Aquino, Patrick, Gazzale, Robert, and Jacobson, Sarah, 2022. “Punishment in Gift Exchange: Carrots, Sticks, Trust, and Incentives” Latest revision: March 2022. (formerly circulated as “When Do Punishment Institutions Work?”) (Experiment instructions: Ex Ante, Ex Post Strategy, Ex Post Direct)

Grants

External Grants:

National Science Foundation (NSF) Award DUE-2315698. “Diversifying Economics Education through Plug and Play Video Modules with Diverse Role Models, Relevant Research, and Active Learning,” with Jill Caviglia-Harris (lead PI), Jose Fernandez, Jimena González-Ramírez, Kim Holder, and Luke Jones, 2024 ($399,923 total, $34,700 subaward) (withdrawn from grant)

CSWEP-SSRC Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium Grant. “Diversifying Economics Education through Plug and Play Video Modules with Diverse Role Models, Relevant Research, and Active Learning,” with Jill Caviglia-Harris (lead PI), Jose Fernandez, Jimena González-Ramírez, Kim Holder, and Luke Jones, 2023-24 ($198,450 total, $21,715 subaward)

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Award 2021-67023-34646 “Social Justice In Agricultural And Environmental Economics,” (lead PI) with Richard “Max” Melstrom, Angelino Viceisza, and Miesha Williams, 2021-23 ($30,150)

National Science Foundation (NSF) Award SES-1947464.  “RUI: In-Kind Giving: Motives, Beliefs, and Behaviors,” (lead PI) with Angela de Oliveira and Elizabeth Searing, 2020-24 ($205,072 total, $106,828 subaward)

Russell Sage Foundation. “How Race Affects Perceptions of Criminality and Thereby Employment,” (Co-PI) with Robynn Cox (PI) and Jennifer Doleac and Benjamin Hansen (Co-PI’s), 2015-2017 ($28,600)

National Science Foundation (NSF) Award SES-0752754.  “Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: The Girl Scout Cookie Phenomenon – An Experimental Study of Social Effects in Fundraising,” with Ragan Petrie, 2008 ($8,640)

Internal Grants (selected):

Oakley Center Fellowship, Williams College, 2018. ($4,000)

Williams College Hellman Fellows Grant. “The Inter-temporal Effectiveness of Altruism,” with Angela de Oliveira, 2014-16 ($15,556)

Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR) small grant. “Luck and Discovered Risk Preferences,” with Jason Delaney and Thorsten Moenig, 2011-13 ($5,000)

Awards (selected):

American Economic Association Impactful Mentor Award, 2026

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Excellence in Refereeing Award, 2026

American Economic Association Impactful Mentor Award, 2023

Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) Award for the Promotion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, 2023

Applied Economics Teaching Resources Outstanding Article Award, 2022 (for “Seeds of Learning…”)

Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) Distinguished Member Award, 2022

More Information

Teaching

At Williams, I have taught:

• Econ 251 “Price and Allocation Theory” (intermediate microeconomics, undergraduate)
• Econ / Envi 213 “Intro to Environmental & Natural Resource Economics” (undergraduate)
• Econ / Envi 386 / 518 “Environmental Policy & Natural Resource Management” (undergraduate and CDE MA)
• Econ 477 / Envi 376 “The Economics of Environmental Behavior”

Information for students in my classes is available on GLOW.

Public Engagement

Here are some ways that I engage with the larger world:

• National Economic Education Delegation (NEED) – I give short talks on the economics of climate change to whatever group wants to hear (e.g., Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis, etc.) (and I’m the Chair of NEED’s Board)
• I did an interview with the Women in Economics Initiative podcast, discussing topics related to the job market (CV’s, websites, and taking care of yourself)

Other Things

Here are some handouts and other resources that I’ve made that may be useful:

Contact Info

My Schapiro office is on the second floor, across from the north stairwell. My office in the Class of 1966 Environmental Center is Room 213.

For fall 2026, my drop-in office hours are Thursdays 10am-noon in Class of 1966 Center room 213; additionally, you can book a meeting / office hours (in-person or Zoom) at other times with me here; or if there aren’t any that work for you, email me and we’ll work something out! Drop-in office hour shift for Thu Sep 17: 9-11am instead!

I use she/her pronouns.

Google Scholar, Bluesky (I am no longer on Twitter)

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