Davis Taylor

Davis Taylor joined the faculty of College of the Atlantic in 1995 and teaches a wide range of courses in economics, forest policy, economic sociology, and sustainable community development.  On three occasions he has taught for a term in Yucatán as part of the College's International Studies program. Students that have worked with Davis at COA have done a wide range of projects, including:

• starting "fair trade" and ecotourism businesses
• assessing nonprofit effectiveness in the conservation of marine turtle habitat
• studying the use of alternative fibers in papermaking
• studying how ecological economics themes could be incorporated into U.S. economic policy
• assessing the teaching of business ethics at graduate business schools
• analyzing a UN microfinance project in Nepal

Davis was originally trained in neoclassical microeconomics, but his research interests have expanded to include development economics, ecological economics, economic sociology, and sustainable community development. His research and book reviews have been published in the  Southern Economic Journal, Ecological Economics, and the Human Ecology Review.  His teaching and research in  Yucatán led him to develop an alternative to cost-benefit analysis that better incorporates community sustainability into project assessment. He has presented papers that model the human ecology of forests, expand the concepts of community sustainability, and develop tools for ecotourism planning and operations.  Davis' current research effort involves the integration of economic sociology theories of consumerism and work into comprehensive models of sustainable community development.

Davis received a BS in Political Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1985, after which he served for five years in the field artillery and completed Airborne, Air Assault, and Jungle schools. He left the U.S. Army as a Captain in 1990, and earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oregon in 1995. While at the University of Oregon he received the Kliensorge Award for Teaching Excellence and served as a consultant to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its study of the economic impact of critical habitat designation for the endangered marbled murrelet.

Davis' other interests include cooking, sailing, long-distance running, and all forms of snow-skiing. He resides in Bar Harbor.

Hompage:
http://home.coa.edu/faculty/webpages/dtaylor/