Education: PhD in Economics from The Ohio State University

Junkan Li is a Senior Research Economist at the Agricultural Risk Policy Center (ARPC) at North Dakota State University. His research focuses on economic modeling and policy analysis related to environmental shocks and climate risks, with particular emphasis on their impacts on regional economies, agricultural systems, and household welfare. His work integrates reduced-form empirical methods with computational and simulation-based approaches to quantify how natural hazards propagate through economic systems and to evaluate the effectiveness of risk management and adaptation policies.

Dr. Li earned his Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University, where his research and training focused on macroeconomics, computational economics, and financial economics. Prior to joining NDSU, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cornell University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where he contributed to the NSF-funded CHEER (Coastal Hazards, Equity, Economic Prosperity, and Resilience) hub. In this role, he collaborated closely with atmospheric scientists, engineers, and sociologists to develop interdisciplinary quantitative frameworks linking high-resolution hazard modeling with economic analysis of natural hazards, recovery dynamics, and mitigation strategies. His research bridges economics, agriculture, and environmental science, with the goal of producing policy-relevant insights that inform risk management and enhance economic resilience.