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Dan Biller

Dan Biller, Ph.D.

Professor of Practice in Economics

In the Middle East, there was a legendary figure named Al-Hakawati – the story teller. Crummer’s global focus allows me to bring my own experiences from all over the world to illustrate economic concepts like a Hakawati telling stories, helping students to make connections on how economics impacts businesses worldwide. Economics can be dry if focused solely on graphs and equations but can be very exciting as well. It is very rewarding to see the students making the connections on their own at the end of the course using the concepts and the stories we discussed during the class.

Dan Biller joined the Crummer faculty in 2019 from the World Bank Group and teaches Economics. At the World Bank Group, he held several managerial and technical positions. In his last position, he was the Manager of the Economics Unit in the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group, overseeing MIGA’s country and project risk assessment as well as the analysis of development impact. 

Prior to joining MIGA in 2013, Dr. Biller was the Sustainable Development Lead Economist for the World Bank’s South Asia Region, Lead Economist for the East Asia and Pacific Region, and Environment and Natural Resources Program Leader at the World Bank Institute. He was also a senior economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and has taught at universities and worked with private sector and governments on infrastructure and mining/hydrocarbon regulatory issues while he was on the staff of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil.

Dr. Biller has published extensively on topics such as economic development, natural resource and environmental economics, sustainable consumption, urban/rural linkages, infrastructure, climate change, and social development issues. He received his PhD and master’s degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in geophysics from the University of Kansas. 

Research & Articles

Co-Edited by Dan Biller | Oxford University Press 2022

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Environmental Economics presents our understanding of the character and evolution of this relatively broad field in its macro and micro terms. Through a globally diverse set of articles drawn from the Americas, Europe, China, Africa, Asia, India and Japan, the encyclopedia portrays how and why environmental issues influence economic activity and the effects of economics on the environment we live in. Enhancing this knowledge base for natural scientists as well as for economists, along with sociologists, political scientists, educators, students, researchers and practitioners, will help to clarify the way ahead to a sustainable future worldwide. Five thematic categories prevail with coverage of pressing questions, from the economic consequences of global climate change, water scarcity and habitat loss to the rise of environmental services, and more. All of the articles appear online as part of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science.

https://oxfordre.com/environmentalscience/page/779

Co-Authored by Dan Biller | Journal of Infrastructure Development

Policy makers are often confronted with a myriad of factors in the investment decision-making process. This issue is particularly acute in infrastructure decisions since these often involve large sums and lock-in technologies. In regions and countries where the infrastructure access gap is large and public budgets severely constrained, the importance of considering the different facets of the decision-making process becomes even more relevant. This is the case for South Asia. This article presents the infrastructure access gap in South Asia and discusses the impacts that this gap has in South Asian economies. It examines the links between the infrastructure and economic growth and infrastructure and welfare/poverty. The article reviews different methodologies to measure these impacts and hence serve as mechanisms to establish priorities. Finally, the article presents a methodology to holistically equate trade-offs among different policy objectives per key infrastructure sectors.

https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jouinf/v8y2016i2p111-127.html

OECD 2003

The private provision of biodiversity products and services is proving to be quite feasible in some circumstances.  Some biodiversity products and services are already being profitably marketed. Private markets also need to be supported by appropriate public policies. This publication provides a conceptual framework for market creation in the biodiversity policy arena, as well as several examples of where the use of markets can assist policy makers in the search for more sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity.

https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264099241-en