# Harvard Society of Fellows Junior Fellow Anna Russo Reflects on her Research, Teaching, and the Policy Implications of Her Work in the Newest Episode of “Environmental Insights” September 09, 2025 A rising star in the field of environmental economics, [Anna Russo](https://heep.hks.harvard.edu/people/anna-russo), a Junior Fellow with the [Harvard Society of Fellows](https://socfell.fas.harvard.edu/), shared her unique perspectives on the collaborative environment at Harvard, her research methodology likened to solving puzzles, and the importance of combining diverse data sources to derive meaningful insights in the newest episode of “[Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program](https://soundcloud.com/environmentalinsights/).” The podcast is produced by the [Harvard Environmental Economics Program](http://www.heep.hks.harvard.edu/). Listen to the interview [here.](https://on.soundcloud.com/a4WjzaySyYeM8Z2XeU) Hosted by [Robert N. Stavins](https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/robert-stavins), A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development at [Harvard Kennedy School](http://www.hks.harvard.edu/) and director of the [Harvard Environmental Economics Program](http://www.heep.hks.harvard.edu/) and the [Harvard Project on Climate Agreements](https://www.belfercenter.org/project/harvard-project-climate-agreements), Environmental Insights is intended to promote public discourse on important issues at the intersection of economics and environmental policy. Russo, who will join Harvard's Department of Economics as an Assistant Professor in July of 2026, characterizes her research fields as environmental economics, public finance, industrial organization, and market design. Stavins asked her how she came to focus on these fields. “It came about from taking field courses and figuring out the classes of questions that got me excited, which are typically settings in which we think there's some kind of market that could provide a lot of value to society or to participants, but for some kind of nebulous, probably pointing to some sort of market or policy failure reason, is not functioning well,” she remarked. “That is exciting to me because I want to try to think about how I can fix it.” [Russo’s recent paper](https://annarusso.github.io/papers/aspelund_russo_crp.pdf), co-authored with Karl Aspelund, focuses on the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program’s auction mechanism for ecosystem services, using satellite-derived land use data to determine the impact of environmental incentive policies. “When we're trying to incentivize someone to do something good, for example, conserve their land, we care deeply whether they would have conserved that land anyways, in which case the finances spent on that are potentially wasted or could have been used elsewhere,” she said. “That's where linking the bids to the satellite data really come in handy because it allows me to learn about both individual participants’ costs and behavior in this auction mechanism because bids reveal a lot about the amount that an individual participant would be willing to accept to participate in the conservation reserve program. The satellite data… measures their behaviors on their land, both inside the program and outside the program.” Looking forward, Russo explained that she intends to continue studying vexing market design questions. “Following the stream of the USDA paper, \[I’m\] thinking about conservation markets more globally and I also am generally very excited by questions related to climate change adaptation. And I think it's a sad truth, but the truth is that climate change is already really affecting how we live our lives and imposing lots of risks, particularly related to natural disasters, and I'm interested in studying those further,” she remarked. “Most of my research relates to these high-level questions or themes about information economics, imperfect information, and how participants engage in these environments with imperfect or asymmetric information.” Russo says that when she joins the Harvard faculty, she hopes to influence the next generation of environmental economics scholars by helping them understand how they can have an impact on climate policy and other urgent global challenges. “What other field offers the combination of a hugely pressing societal problem that is fundamentally linked to economic incentives that we have a decent understanding of how to potentially solve, but much is still left unresolved both from a theoretical and an implementation standpoint?” she asks. “The data that's available to studying environmental economics questions is expanding dramatically due to satellite data and improvements in remote sensing. And so, the combination just presents an incredibly exciting avenue to ask questions at the intersection of policy and economics.” Russo’s interview is the fifth episode during 2025 in the [Environmental Insights](https://soundcloud.com/environmentalinsights/) series, with additional episodes scheduled to drop each month. “Environmental Insights is intended to inform and educate listeners about important issues relating to an economic perspective on developments in environmental policy, including the design and implementation of market-based approaches to environmental protection,” said Stavins. “We speak with accomplished Harvard colleagues, other academics, and practitioners who are working on solving some of the most challenging public problems we face.” Environmental Insights is hosted on [SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/environmentalinsights) and is also available on [Amazon Music](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/cd70f458-c1f4-4f11-bf64-c9e0dc71ee5b), [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/environmental-insights-conversations-on-policy-practice/id1482761966), [Pocket Casts](https://pca.st/keck3o78), [Podcast Addict](https://www.podcastaddict.com/podcast/3374959), and [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6WBWmeXTH90a3DoOYpXlhX). **LINK TO PODCAST:** [**https://on.soundcloud.com/a4WjzaySyYeM8Z2XeU**](https://on.soundcloud.com/a4WjzaySyYeM8Z2XeU) See also:- [ 2025 ](/news-year/2025) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)