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Peter Berck

  • Editor, Giannini Foundation Monograph Series, 2000-Present
  • Editor, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2000-2004
  • Chair, University of California System-wide Committee on Educational Policy, 1999-2000
  • Editor, Natural Resource Modeling, 1991-1996, 1999
  • Board of Directors, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 1986-1987
  • General Associate Editor, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1983-1986
  • S.J. Hall Professor, (Assistant/Associate/Professor) Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 1976-Present
  • PhD, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976
  • BA, Mathematics and Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 1971

Peter Berck was born in New York City, where he learned the lumber business and the basics of forestry from his father. After receiving his BA at University of California, Berkeley, he completed his PhD at MIT. He then returned to Berkeley where he is now SJ Hall Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Umea University in Sweden.

Berck has served as editor for AJAE and Natural Resource Modeling. He chaired the University of California system wide Educational Policy Committee. Also, as the University of California prepared to open its tenth campus at Merced, he chaired the Task Force that hired founding faculty.

His research has greatly influenced public policy. His evaluation of the California Bottle Bill for the Legislature resulted in an increased container deposit. His California computable general equilibrium model is used by the state to analyze the impacts of environmental and tax policies, including greenhouse gas regulations.

Berck also focuses on non-traditional capital. He derived the capital-market rules for renewable resources (such as trees) in an equilibrium context, incorporating rational expectations.

Berck is currently completing a textbook and continuing his work on climate change and biofuels.