Elinor Benami

Expertise:

Development economics; environmental and natural resource economics

Overview

My overseas research experience spans Brazil, Uganda, Kenya, and Indonesia -- and in the years ahead she will be doing more work on (and looking for students to work with her on) irrigation adoption decisions and drought risk financing options in the arid, olive-growing regions of Morocco as a NASA-funded early career scientist (link here).

I use both economics and land systems science to help uncover how digital data can help predict, detect, and remedy environmental hazards that affect human welfare.  My research aims to help farmers improve their resilience to weather risk as well as inform public agencies to enhance their effectiveness.

Specific projects include:

How emerging digital technologies (e.g., mobile money, digital credit scoring, and earth observation) can reshape rural markets for savings, credit and insurance services.

Uniting Advances in Remote Sensing, Crop Modeling, & Economics for Understanding and Managing Weather Risk in Agriculture.

The Distributive Effects of Risk Prediction in Environmental Compliance: Algorithmic Design, Environmental Justice, and Public Policy

The Producer Response to Eco-Certification:  Evidence from the Quality, Quantity, and Consistency of Brazilian Coffee Production

For more information about my research program, visit my personal website: ebenami.com/research

• Remote Sensing in the Social Sciences Fall 2021, 2022, 2024 | Instructor of Record, Masters/PhD Graduate Course, Virginia Tech
• Climate Risk Management Fall 2023 | Instructor of Record, Upper Level Undergraduate Course, Virginia Tech
• Environmental and Sustainable Development Economics Spring 2021 & 2022 | Instructor of Record, Undergraduate Course, Virginia Tech
• The Economics of Index Insurance Summer 2019 | Co-Instructor of Short Course for Remote Sensing Specialists in Nairobi, Kenya
• Environmental Governance Spring 2018 | Teaching Assistant, Stanford University
• ECON/ESS 106/206: World Food Economy Spring 2016 | Teaching Assistant, Stanford University
• Honors Seminar on Energy in Transition: De-Carbonizing America Spring 2010 | Teaching Assistant, UNC - Chapel Hill
• NC Fellows Leadership Development Sophomore Seminar Fall 2009 | Teaching Assistant, UNC - Chapel Hill

Experience

• Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech Aug. 2020 - present | Agricultural and Applied Economics Department
• Faculty Affiliate Summer 2020 - present | Stanford Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab
• Faculty Affiliate Spring 2021 - present | VT Remote Sensing & Global Change Center, Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Programs; Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture
• Impact Area Co-Lead for Insurance & Climate Finance Fall 2022 - present | NASA Harvest (NASA Global Food Security and Agriculture Consortium)

Highlight of Recent Selected Grants, Fellowships, & Honors

• VT Early Career Scholarly Impact Award Nominee 2025
• Insurance and Climate Finance Co-Lead for NASA Harvest, Co-PI ($650,000 share of $ 15 mil grant) 2023 - 2028
• VT Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture, Co-PI ($550k share of $80mil grant) 2023 - 2026
• VT CALS Strategic Plan Integrated Internal Competitive Seed Grants Program, PI ($75,000) 2023 - 2026
• NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Early Career Scientist Grant, Co-Lead PI ($212k of $449,560) 2020 - 2023
• Stanford Impact Labs Grant for Modernizing Environmental Compliance, Co-PI 2020 - 2022
• PERC Lone Mountain Summer Fellow 2023
• Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) Scholar 2022

Selected Academic Manuscripts

• Benami, E., Bovay, J., Zhang, W., Ta, C.. (in prep). "How and Where Do Financial Incentives Promote Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices? A $54 million experiment among U.S. Producers." [Preanalysis Plan in prep for submission to the AEA RCT Registry]
• Benami, E., Becker-Reshef, I., Kirchner, E., Cecil, M.J., Chautems, M. (in prep for Nature Communications). "Opportunities for EO to help derisk the transition to sustainable agricultural systems."
• Saunders, A., Tellman, B., Benami, E., Anchukaitis, K., Bennett, A., Hossain, S., Islam, A.K.M. Saiful, Giezendanner, J. (Revise and Resubmit, Earth's Future). "Sensitivity to Data Choice Across Scales for Index-Based Flood Insurance."
• Benami, E., Bell, A., Messer, K., Cecil, M., Zhang, W. 2025 Agricultural Economics. "Seeding Change to Manage Climate Change: Growing Insights from Four USDA Programs to Support Climate-Smart Agriculture."
• Benami, E., Ramanujan, R., Cecil, M. (Accepted, Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.) "Rain Check: Examining How Fine-Scale Precipitation Data Affects Payouts in a U.S. Weather Index Insurance Program."
• Benami, E., Kirchner, E., Hobbs, A.W., Carter M.R., Zhenong J., (Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Development Economics) "Get in the Zone: The Risk-Adjusted Welfare Effects of Using Machine Learning vs. Administrative Borders to Define Agricultural Index Insurance Zones."