AAEA主席 David Zilberman 获2019年沃尔夫农业奖

前AAEA主席Jill McCluskey在Twitter上说，现任AAEA主席 David Zilberman获得了2019年沃尔夫农业奖（Wolf Prize in Agriculture），成为第一位获此荣誉的农业经济学家。

沃尔夫奖由以色列沃尔夫基金会设立，1978年开始颁发，又被称为犹太人的诺贝尔奖，奖励领域包括六个：农业、化学、数学、医药、物理、或艺术领域中建筑、音乐、绘画、雕塑四大项目之一。其中，沃尔夫物理奖和化学奖在领域内被认为仅次于诺贝尔奖；由于诺贝尔奖没有设立数学奖，沃尔夫数学奖也被很多人认为是数学界的诺贝尔奖；沃尔夫医学理奖也仅次于诺贝尔医学奖和拉斯克奖。

当然，沃尔夫农业奖也被部分业内人士称为农业界的诺贝尔奖（the Nobel of  Agriculture），袁隆平在2004年也获得了此荣誉，他也是目前8位沃尔夫奖华人得主中唯一的一位中国大陆获奖者。

沃尔夫农业奖官方介绍David Zilberman：

Dr. Zilberman has incorporated biophysical features of agroeconomic systems to develop economic models and econometric decision-making frameworks to answer fundamental agricultural economic and policy questions in several important areas:

Water: He developed models of choice and impact of water conservation technologies, showing that they are yield-enhancing and usually water-saving, though when yield effects are especially high, they may lead toincreased water use per unit of land. Introduction of water trading can facilitate adoption of conservation practices.

Pest Control: Zilberman revolutionized research on the economics of pest control by (a) introducing the damage control function toestimate the productivity of pest control strategies, (b) developing methods to assess the benefits of pesticide under regulation, and (c) introducing a method to regulate environmental health risks of chemical pesticides.

Biotechnology: His studies challenge myths about genetically modified (GM) crops. He showed that the introduction of GM cotton has increased yields substantially in India and that GMOs have increased supplies of corn and soybean, reducing prices and benefitting the poor. His work provides a framework to assess the cost of delay in introducing new technologies due to prolonged regulatory processes. He estimated the social cost of regulation for golden rice and banning the introduction of biotechnologies to Africa.

Payment for Ecosystem Services: Zilberman developed better mechanisms to allocate government payment for agricultural services, and motivated the redesign of programs like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)in the US.

Technology Adoption: Zilberman’s work developed asophisticated approach to analyze adoption of modern technologies in agriculture incorporating farmer behavior, heterogeneity, and dynamic processesof learning. This approach has been applied heavily.

Dr. Zilberman's career presents a unique mixture of theoretical work, applied research and extension, and he is a leading protagonist in debates over water policy, environmental and resource policy in agriculture and the bioeconomy.

From: http://www.wolffund.org.il/