Speaker Biographies

Mary Shirley is a founder and president of the Ronald Coase Institute, which advances research on the rules, laws, norms, and customs that shape real-world economies. Prior to that she worked for over twenty years in World Bank research. She has published numerous scholarly articles and books on new institutional economics, economic development, and privatization of state-owned enterprises.

Gary D. Libecap is a distinguished professor emeritus at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara; research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research; director, Ronald Coase Institute; Erskine Professor, University of Canterbury; Pitt Professor, Cambridge University; and fellow of the Cliometrics Society. He has been president of the Economic History Association and the Western Economic Association International. Libecap has been an author, editor, or co-editor for many books and journal articles. The Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics in 2021 recognized his research record with the Elinor Ostrom Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nilesh Shinde is an assistant professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington. An environmental and natural resource economist, he studies how property rights and institutions shape land and water use, with implications for conservation, public health, and economic development in Brazil, India, and the United States. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of environmental economics and informatics. By combining causal inference, satellite data, and economic theory, he aims to contribute to evidence-based insights to inform policies that balance growth, equity, and sustainability.

Matthew E. Kahn is a provost professor of economics at the University of Southern California; a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics; a senior fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC; and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has taught at Columbia University, the Fletcher School at Tufts University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and the London School of Economics. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Nisha Koppa is a third-year PhD student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She holds a master’s degree in economic development from Lund University, Sweden, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from India. She is interested in exploring how climate change affects global food systems and how trade and policy decisions can help or hinder adaptation.