Sarah Meier, ETH Zurich

Eric Strobl, University of Bern

Robert J. R. Elliott, University of Birmingham

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense in many regions, driven by climate change, land-use shifts, and expanding human settlements in fire-prone areas. These changes have transformed wildfires into systemic economic and ecological risks. The economic impacts are substantial and multifaceted, extending beyond direct suppression costs to include disruptions to supply chains, labour productivity losses, effects on tourism and housing markets, and significant public health burdens from smoke exposure.

This special issue seeks empirical research that quantifies the economic consequences of wildfires and smoke, and evaluates the effectiveness of policy responses and adaptation strategies. The journal welcomes applied environmental and resource economics studies using innovative data sources and identification methods, as well as interdisciplinary work that strengthens economic understanding of wildfire impacts and informs policy decisions. The issue particularly encourages cross-regional comparisons to facilitate knowledge exchange between regions with established fire experience and those facing emerging vulnerabilities.

Appel publié par Environmental and Resource Economics. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Labour productivity, sectoral employment shifts, and worker mobility
• Housing markets, mortgage risk, and migration and other behavioural responses to wildfire risk and exposure
• Natural capital and ecosystem service valuation, including impacts on biodiversity, recreation, and forest asset pricing
• Inequality, information access, and distributional impacts of exposure and monitoring technologies
• Public finance, insurance markets, and the fiscal consequences for local and regional governments
• Institutions, governance, and risk-sharing arrangements, including coordination across jurisdictions, public-private roles, and firm responses to wildfire risk
• Prevention, suppression, and adaptation strategies, including land-use planning, prescribed burning, indigenous fire stewardship, and advanced monitoring and management technologies
• Welfare losses from smoke exposure, including physical and mental health outcomes and associated human capital effects

Timeline

• September 30, 2026: Submission deadline