Ph.D., Forest Economics and Policy, 2011
Food and Resource Economics (minor), University of Florida, Gainesville FL

M.B.A., Forestry Management, 2004
Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India

M.A., Geography, 2001
Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, India

B.A.(H), Economics, 1999
Delhi University, Delhi, India

Pankaj Lal has professional experience in environmental issues in South Asia, United States, and Africa. He is credited for more than two dozen research publications in peer reviewed journals, United States Department of Agriculture technical reports, book chapters, and research reports. During his professional sojourn, he has secured research grants from multilateral and bilateral agencies, government, foundations, NGOs and the private sector. He joins MSU after serving as Visiting Scholar at Virgnia Tech. Prior to his terminal degree, he worked with Winrock International India as Program Officer in the Natural Resource Management Division and Pricewaterhouse Coopers India in the Government Reforms and Infrastructure Development Practice.

Environmental Economics and Policy
Bioenergy
Climate Change
Modeling and Analysis of Forest and Agriculture Markets
Collective Resource Management and Conservation

Assessing socioeconomic impacts of forest biomass based biofuel development on rural communities in the Southern United States

In this three year project led by Dr. Lal, stakeholder surveys will be conducted in thirteen Southern States in U.S. to assess perceived socioeconomic acceptability of woody biofuels. Direct, indirect, and induced impacts of woody biofuel expansion on stakeholders will be estimated through Input Output Analysis and Social Accounting Matrix approach. Region wide distributional impact will be assessed through computable general equilibrium model. This project is funded by United States Department of Agriculture. Other institutions working on this project are Texas A&M ,Virginia Tech, and Tuskegee University.

U.S-India Consortium for Development of Advanced Biofuel Systems

In this five year $6.25 million project funded by Department of Energy, MSU is entrusted with the task of conducting economic and environmental analysis of advanced biofuel markets in US.Discrete choice methods will be used to estimate willingness to pay/accept for advanced biofuels, conduct life cycle analyses, and develop financial and economic models to assess policy designs and sustainability tradeoffs in context of long-term market growth of advanced biofuels. Other US institutions involved in the project are University of Florida; University of Missouri; Texas A&M; Show Me Energy; and Green Technologies.