falcon

Walter P. Falcon, PhD

  • 1936-2023
  • Helen Farnsworth Professor of International Agricultural Policy, Economics (Emeritus)
  • FSI Senior Fellow, Emeritus
  • Stanford Woods Institute Senior Fellow, Emeritus

Biography

Walter Falcon was former deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, former director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Farnsworth professor of International Agricultural Policy and Economics at Stanford University (Emeritus). He died on August 2, 2023. Read his obituary here.

In 1972, Falcon moved from Harvard University to Stanford University's Food Research Institute where he served as professor of economics and director until 1991. From 1991-1998, he directed the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and from 1998-2007 he co-directed the Center for Environmental Science and Policy. He also served as senior associate dean for the social sciences, a member of the academic senate, and twice a member of the University's Advisory Board.

Falcon consulted with numerous international organizations, and had been a trustee of Winrock International and chairman of the board of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Center for Wheat and Maize Improvement (CIMMYT). Falcon became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1991. Falcon was cited as the outstanding 1958 graduate of Iowa State University in 1989 and in 1992 he was awarded the prestigious Bintang Jasa Utama medal of merit by the government of Indonesia for twenty-five years of assistance with that country's development effort. His recent co-authored papers have analyzed the effects of El Nino on Asian agriculture; Mexican agricultural policy; food price volatility; and biofuels.

Falcon received a BS in Agricultural Economics at Iowa State University in 1958, an MA in Economics at Harvard University in 1960, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1962.

publications

Working Papers
December 2020

Curtailing Land-Clearing Fires in Indonesia

Author(s)
cover link Curtailing Land-Clearing Fires in Indonesia
Journal Articles
November 2019

Causes of Indonesia’s forest fires

Author(s)
cover link Causes of Indonesia’s forest fires
Journal Articles
January 2019

Decentralization and the environment: Assessing smallholder oil palm development in Indonesia

Author(s)
cover link Decentralization and the environment: Assessing smallholder oil palm development in Indonesia

In The News

burned rainforest
News

Can cash incentives stop deforestation?

New work by team including FSE researchers provides a broad, cautionary understanding of why financial incentives alone are unlikely to prevent forest-clearing fires in Indonesia’s oil palm regions.
cover link Can cash incentives stop deforestation?
flooded tractor USDAgov hl
News

Stuck in the Mud: Stanford’s Scholarly Farmer on the Soggy Fortunes of Midwest Growers

cover link Stuck in the Mud: Stanford’s Scholarly Farmer on the Soggy Fortunes of Midwest Growers
wally 3
News

Field Notes from an Iowa Farm

cover link Field Notes from an Iowa Farm