Walter Thurman

Walter (Wally) Thurman is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University. He was formerly a PERC senior fellow and a PERC 2003 Julian Simon Fellow. Wally was also a fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, and a recipient of that organization’s Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award. He has received other awards for his published research and has also served as an editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Wally studies the economics and political economy of agricultural and natural resource policy and has published widely on these topics. His published work includes empirical studies of the drivers of land trust growth, quota schemes in the United States for peanuts and tobacco, analysis of the effects of the Clean Water and Clear Air Acts, and compensation schemes in agricultural industries. Today, Wally studies land trusts, markets for honey bee pollination services, and the economics of adaptation to environmental change. He earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Utah State University, a Master’s degree in Economics from Montana State University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.