Levan Elbakidze

Dr. Levan Elbakidze is an Associate Professor in the Division of Resource Economics and Management, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, and a Faculty Research Associate at the Regional Research Institute, and at the Center for Innovation in Gas Research and Utilization at West Virginia University.  He earned his BS and MS from the University of Nevada, Reno, and PhD from Texas A&M University.  Dr. Elbakidze’s research program primarily revolves around natural resource economics including water resource economics, management of invasive species, pests and infectious animal diseases, and energy. He is also interested in applications of experimental economics, and in interdisciplinary modeling of systems involving interdependent human and biophysical components. He has received research grants from The U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geologic Survey, and the Nature Conservancy.  His work has been published in Risk Analysis, Water Resources Research, Resource and Energy Economics, Ecological Economics, Agricultural Economics, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, and other peer reviewed journals.

Select Publications

1. Khurana, R.* L. Elbakidze, J. Hall, (2020) "The Political Economy of Solar Initiatives in the Sunshine State” Applied Economics Letters, Accepted.
2. Mugabe, D.* L. Elbakidze, T. Carr, (2020) “All the DUCs in a Row: Natural Gas Production in the US” the Energy Journal, Forthcoming.
3. Cohen, J. L. Elbakidze, R. Jackson (2020) “Solar bait: How U.S. states attract solar investments from large corporations” the Energy Journal, 41(2).
4. Mugabe*, D. L. Elbakidze, and G. Zaynutdinova (2019) “Elasticity of Substitution and Technical Efficiency: Evidence from the US Electricity Generation,” Applied Economics, DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2019.1678733
5. Tavárez, H., L. Elbakidze (2019). “Valuing recreational enhancements in the San Patricio Urban Forest of Puerto Rico: A choice experiment approach.” Forest Policy and Economics, 109, 102004.
6. Elbakidze, L., H. Vinson*, K. Cobourn, and G. Taylor (2018), “Efficient Groundwater Allocation and Binding Hydrologic Externalities,”  Resource and Energy Economics, 53:147-161
7. Elbakidze, L. and R. Nayga, (2017) “The Adding-up Test in an Incentivized Value Elicitation Mechanism: The Role of the Income Effect”  Environmental and Resource Economics. DOI 10.1007/s10640-017-0177-9
8. Elbakidze, L., B. Faannunu*, A. Mamula, G. Taylor (2017) “Evaluating economic efficiency of a water buyback program: The Klamath irrigation project”  Resource and Energy Economics, 48:68-82.
9. Elbakidze, L., G Taylor, B. Schiller*, (2017) “Estimation of short and long run derived irrigation water demands and elasticities”  Water Economics and Policy, 3(1), 22pp.
10. Yang*, L., L. Elbakidze, C McIntosh, T. Marsh, (2016) “Primary and secondary pest management in agriculture: balancing pesticides and natural enemies in potato production”  Agricultural Economics, 47:1-11
11. Elbakidze, L., and Y. Jin (2015) “Are economic development and education improvement associated with participation in transnational terrorism?”  Risk Analysis, 35(8):1520-35, DOI: 10.1111/risa.12378