Biography
Paul Kivi is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Bemidji State University. Dr. Kivi graduated from the University of Wyoming with a PhD in Economics and a Graduate Minor in Environmental Science in 2011. He graduated from Bemidji State University with a 4.0 GPA in 1998 and was named the Outstanding College of Social and Natural Science Student that year. He has greatly enjoyed teaching courses in both Economics and Environmental Studies at BSU (2002-2011 and 2014-present) and the University of Minnesota Morris (2012-2014). He has had articles published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Economics Letters, Ecological Economics, and the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. His hometown is Appleton, Wisconsin, though he has also lived in Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, and Minnesota. Dr. Kivi has 3 college-aged children, and still attempts to take them on an annual canoeing trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or Quetico Provincial Park on the Canadian side. You can sometimes here Dr. Kivi’s vintage music shows on Saturdays at noon on KBXE (90.5 FM, and kaxe.org). He may also bring you apples if you run into him at harvest time.
Research Interests
Dr. Kivi’s research interests lie at the intersection of economics and environmental studies. A student working with Dr. Kivi would likely use economic modeling tools to further the Economics literature by applying these to a policy problem, often in Environmental areas. You as student get a great deal of latitude to decide how your passions can become your research within Economics or Environmental Studies, and Dr. Kivi will guide you on a weekly basis to help you create a paper or project of which you can be proud.
Examples of recent student undergraduate theses include: (1) the pros and cons of deficit spending by the US Federal Government; (2) The Effects of Copper-Nickel Mining in Northern Minnesota; (3) Amazon’s anti-competitive strategies; (4) The Economics of Small Scale Farming for Farmers Markets; (5) John Dewey and the Way We Do Economics, Ethics and Aesthetics
Recent Graduate Theses for which Dr. Kivi has been the primary advisor include (1) How education goals interact with environmental literacy in Minnesota; (2) The Economic Impact of Oil Exploration in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.
Recent Work
In 2019, Dr. Kivi published an open-source textbook, Environmental Economics for Undergraduates, which he can continues to update. It is available on Kindle for the lowest price authors are allowed to charge.
Degrees
BS Economics, Bemidji State University
Ph.D. Economics, University of Wyoming
Teaching
Dr. Kivi regularly teaches the following courses: (1) Markets and Resource Allocation, both in person and online; (2) Macroeconomics and the Business Cycle; (3) Forestry and Natural Resource Economics; (4) Microeconomic Decisions; (5) Environmental Economics; (6) Environmental Justice and Sustainability; (7) Environmental Law and Policy; (8) Benefit-Cost Analysis.
Dr. Kivi uses a conversational style built on discussion. He learns every student’s name in every class, even 80-person intro classes (which takes all semester). A conversation requires far more alertness on the part of students than a lecture, and they are a lot more rewarding for everyone. Conversations also lead to detours, but eventually the class gets back to the topic at hand (unless the detour winds up being more valuable to the class than the original lecture material). Also, he cracks a lot jokes since he can’t help himself, sometimes at unexpected times.