Rate My Professor Robert Hearne

Robert Hearne is a Professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University, where he joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2002 and advanced to associate professor in 2008. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Minnesota in 1995. Prior to his appointment at NDSU, Hearne served as a faculty member at the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica from 1998 to 2001, teaching graduate-level courses in microeconomics and environmental economics. He holds affiliate faculty positions in the Environmental Conservation Sciences program and the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute. Hearne’s research specializations include water policy, environmental goods and services, natural resource economics, water markets, and institutional frameworks for water management.

Hearne has received two Fulbright Scholar awards: a Fulbright Research Award at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand, during 2009-2010, and a six-month Fulbright Teaching/Research Award at CATIE in Costa Rica from January to June 2023, where he researched surface water quality management, focusing on point-source pollution from sewage, urban development, industrial discharges, agrichemicals, and coffee processing wastewater while teaching in the Master of Science program in economy, development, and climate change. His key publications encompass a range of topics in water resource management and environmental economics, including “Surface water quality in Costa Rica: new initiatives and challenges” (Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2024), “Cooperative Federalism and the Clean Water Act Implementation in Minnesota and North Dakota” (Journal of Natural Resource Policy Research, 2020), “Strategies for Community and Industry Water Management in the Oil Producing Region of North Dakota” (Water, 2016), “Institutional Evolution of Missouri River Management” (Water Policy, 2016), “The value of fracking wastewater treatment and recycling technologies in North Dakota” (Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination, 2015), “The Relation between Water Pollution and Economic Growth Using the Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Case Study in South Korea” (Water International, 2015), and “Evolving water management institutions in the Red River Basin” (Environmental Management, 2007). Through these contributions and his Spotlight on Economics columns addressing water quality and economic issues, Hearne has impacted academic discourse and policy on sustainable water allocation and environmental protection in agricultural contexts both in the United States and developing countries.