Staff Profile

Michael Weir

Preferred Name: Michael Weir

Research Specialist

Marine Policy Center

Email: mweir@whoi.edu

Phone: 508 289 2895

Education

Ph.D. – Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island, 2019

M.S. – Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island, 2016

B.A. – Economics, minor in mathematics, Lebanon Valley College, 2014

Research Statement

Mike Weir is a Research Specialist in the Marine Policy Center at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research program explores relationships among policy interventions, human behavior, and environmental outcomes using nonmarket valuation methods.

Not everything we “value” is bought and sold in a market – where can you stop to grab more marine biodiversity on your way home from the office? These values are critical to comprehensively evaluate policy tradeoffs. If they are ignored, then policy makers and stakeholders are working with an incomplete “balance sheet” of social costs and benefits.

Recent projects include investigating the socioeconomic impacts of harmful algal blooms and estimating demand for coastal protection measures on Cape Cod.

Select Publications

Weir, Michael J., Callan Yanoff, Di Jin, and Tracey Dalton. 2026. “Understanding public perceptions associated with aquaculture development and farm design in Southern New England” Marine Policy 187 (May): 107050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2026.107050.

Bastian, Liliana, Sara Nawaz, Romany Webb, Rob Bellamy, Amanda Borth, Neil Craik, Harry Hilser, Jan McDonala, Alexander Proelss, Eric Wade, Michael J. Weir. April 2025. “Guiding Recommendations on Collaborative Research Governance, Community Engagement, and Social Science for ExOIS: A Focus on the First 12 months of Field Trial Planning” https://oceaniron.org/our-plan/#SSG

Weir, Michael J., Maya Lozinksy, and Di Jin. 2025. “Assessing public support for commercial fishing in the ocean twilight zone considering climate trade-offs and ocean literacy.” Frontiers in Marine Science 12.https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2025.1420203

Weir, Michael J., Melina Kourantidou, and Di Jin. 2022. “Economic Impacts of Harmful Algal Blooms on Fishery Dependent Communities” Harmful Algae 118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2022.102321

Lang, Corey, Michael J. Weir, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz. 2021 “Status Quo Bias and Public Policy: Evidence in the Context of Carbon Mitigation.” Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abeeb0