In Memoriam: Jack Knetsch

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of professor emeritus Jack Knetsch. 

Knetsch was not only an accomplished economist in behavioural economics, but also in environmental economics.

Tribute messages can be shared with his family on his obituary page: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-ca/obituaries/north-vancouver-bc/jack-knetsch-10881106
 

From SFU Resource & Environmental Management (REM): 

Jack was a Professor in SFU’s Economics Department and REM from 1974 to 1998, at which time he transitioned to Professor Emeritus. Jack received his PhD from Harvard University and worked at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC, before coming to SFU.

Jack was an excellent teacher, mentor and colleague, but he especially made his mark through contributions to leading economics research. With co-authors like Daniel Kahneman, Jack’s experimental research challenged some of the key underlying assumptions of neoclassical economics, with significant implications for the methods used to estimate the monetary value of environmental losses. He had over 200 publications, with many of these in the top economics journals. And some of his collaborators (Kahneman, Thaler) were eventually recognized with the Nobel Prize for the innovative research path to which Jack contributed.