Lala Ma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Carl F. Pollard Professor of Health Economics, Director - Kentucky Research Data Center
Education
- Ph.D., Duke University, 2014
- B.A./M.A., Tufts University, 2007
Lala Ma is an associate professor of economics and the Carl F. Pollard Endowed Professor of Health Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. Ma is also a University Fellow at Resources for the Future. Her primary research area lies in the field of environmental economics with a focus on non-market valuation. Ma combines economic modeling with data to estimate the value of environmental services as an input into policy. Her work can be broadly categorized into three areas: valuation as revealed through housing markets, valuation using direct impacts on health or environmental outcomes and distributional and equity issues related to pollution exposure. Ma received her Ph.D. in economics from Duke University in 2014.
Teaching Expertise:
- Environmental Economics
Research Expertise:
- Environmental Economics
Selected Publications
- Banzhaf, S., Ma, L., & Timmins, C. (2019). Environmental justice: The economics of race, place, and pollution. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(1), 185-208.
- Ma, L. (2020). Mapping the clean air haves and have-nots. Science, 369(6503), 503-504.
- Ma, L. (2019). Learning in a hedonic framework: Valuing brownfield remediation. International Economic Review, 60(3), 1355-1387.
- Bakkensen, L. A., & Ma, L. (2020). Sorting over flood risk and implications for policy reform. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 104, 102362.
- Hill, E. L., & Ma, L. (2022). Drinking water, fracking, and infant health. Journal of Health Economics, 82, 102595.
