Fighting Fire with Fire: A Study on the Effectiveness of Prescribed Burns in Mitigating Future Wildfires (Work in Progress)

Abstract: Wildfires are a growing concern, especially in the U.S., where climate change and urban expansion into wildfire-prone areas have exacerbated their frequency and severity. This project, Fighting Fire with Fire, investigates the effectiveness of prescribed burns—controlled fires intentionally set to reduce the amount of combustible vegetation—in mitigating the future occurrence and severity of wildfires. Despite the increasing attention wildfires have received, to my knowledge, no environmental economics paper has examined the effectiveness of prescribed burns in the U.S. context. My research aims to fill this gap by providing rigorous, policy-relevant insights into the role of prescribed burns in wildfire management.