Working Papers
Optimal forest management for interdependent products: A nested stochastic dynamic bioeconomic model and application to bamboo (Job Market Paper)
with David R. Just, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Jiancheng Zhao
Sustainable forest management is a complex dynamic problem, and an important issue worldwide. Forests supply the world’s population with a variety of forest products, including renewable products such as fruits, nuts, and maple syrup that can be harvested at more frequent intervals than the trees themselves. When there is both uncertainty and interdependent forest products, the interaction between these two phenomena leads to a complicated set of trade-offs; developing a model at this nexus is the primary innovation of our paper. In particular, we develop a nested stochastic dynamic bioeconomic model of optimal forest management under uncertainty for interdependent products that differ in their growth cycles, rates of growth, lengths of growing periods, and potential harvest frequency. Our enables us to assess the optimality of actual decisions made by forest mangers and to develop a dynamic structural econometric model to understand the beliefs and perceptions that underlie and rationalize their management strategies. We apply our model to bamboo forests, which generate two interdependent products: bamboo shoots and bamboo stems. Our model has important implications for the sustainable management of forests worldwide.
Wu, Tong, David R. Just, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Jiancheng Zhao, Zhangjun Fei, and Qiang Wei. (2025). Bamboo management, economics, and finance: Evidence from Moso bamboo farmers in China. Working paper, Cornell University.
Wu, Tong, Jennifer E. Ifft, David R. Just, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Jiancheng Zhao, Zhangjun Fei, and Qiang Wei. (2025). The bamboo cycle. Working paper, Cornell University.
Wu, Tong, Zhiyun Li, M. Vivienne Liu, Zongjie Wang, C. Lindsay Anderson, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Scott Steinschneider, M. Todd Walter, Peter B. Woodbury, David R. Just, Kenji Doering, Elnaz Kabir, Nasser Najibi, Vivek Srikrishnan, Sungwook Wi. (2025). Agricultural-to-energy land use transitions. Working paper, Cornell University.
Publications
Wu, Tong, David R. Just, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Jiancheng Zhao, Zhangjun Fei, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, and Qiang Wei. (2024). Optimal forest management under uncertainty: A framework for stochastic dynamic bioeconomic modeling. International Business Analytics Conference Proceedings, 1 (1), 56-61.
Barrett, Christopher B., Kate Ghezzi-Kopel, John Hoddinott, Nima Homami, Elizabeth Tennant, Joanna Upton, and Tong Wu. (2021). A scoping review of the development resilience literature: Theory, methods and evidence. World Development, 146, 105612. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X21002278
Work in Progress
Agricultural-to-Energy Land Use Transitions: A FEW System with C. Lindsay Anderson, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Lawell, Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Scott Steinschneider, M. Todd Walter, and Peter B. Woodbury
Selected Honors and Awards
Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Land, Water and Environmental Economics Section (ENV) Section Poster Presentation Award (2024)
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award (2024)
Dyson Graduate Student – Outstanding Engaged Research Award (2024)
Western Forest Economists (WFE) Forest Business Economics Award (2023)
Dyson Graduate Student – Research Excellence Award (2023)
Dyson Graduate Teaching Assistant – Outstanding Service Award (2021)
Tong Wu 