Yongxia Cai is an environmental and resource economist with more than ten years’ experience developing large-scale economic optimization models; she provides analytical solutions to support environmental policies for U.S. federal and state agencies, as well as international agencies. The models she has developed and/or supported include Computable General Equilibrium Models (ADAGE, EPPA and EMPAX) and sectorial optimization models focusing on agriculture and forests (FASOM), water resources (TexasRiverSim), and industrial air pollutants (ISIS).
At RTI, Dr. Cai has applied these models to conduct policy analysis that includes agricultural climate-change impact and mitigation, the policy implications of biofuel shocks, the market potential of alternative-fuel vehicle technology, the role of land in mitigating climate change, and the interaction between climate, energy, transportation, agriculture and food.