Professor

301-405-6345
nelsonr@umd.edu

Expertise
Land and natural resource management, with a particular emphasis on management of federally owned resources, and economic ethics.

Dr. Nelson is the author of many journal articles and seven books: Zoning and Property Rights (MIT Press, 1977); The Making of Federal Coal Policy (Duke University Press, 1983); Reaching for Heaven on Earth: The Theological Meaning of Economics (1991); Public Lands and Private Rights: The Failure of Scientific Management (1995); A Burning Issue: A Case for Abolishing the U.S. Forest Service (2000), Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond (Penn State Press, 2001), and Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government (Urban Institute Press, 2005). He has written widely in publications for broader audiences, including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The Weekly Standard, Reason, Society, and Technology Review. Nelson worked in the Office of Policy Analysis of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior from 1975 to 1993. He has served as the senior economist of the Congressionally chartered Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing (Linowes Commission) and as senior research manager of the President's Commission on Privatization. He has been a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, visiting senior fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, visiting scholar at the Political Economy Research Center, and visiting research associate at the Center for Applied Social Sciences of The University of Zimbabwe.

See also his Short Bio (PDF), CV (PDF), Course Materials and Professional Papers.