David Zilberman, a UC Cooperative Extension agricultural and resources economics specialist at UC Berkeley, retired on Jan. 1.
Zilberman joined the UC Berkeley in 1979 in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department, where he held the Robinson Chair. He is the co-founder and was co-director of the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program and was the director of the Master of Development Practice in the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.
His research focuses on the economics of technology, risk and policy in agriculture and the environment.
Zilberman earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics from Tel Aviv University in 1973, then a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from UC Berkeley in 1979.
In Israel, his professor Eithan Hochman received a letter from UC Berkeley professor Alain de Janvry inviting students to apply to the Agricultural and Resource Economics Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley. “When I saw the letter, I had a strong sense that I would end up there,” Zilberman wrote in a blog post.
He was hired as a research assistant to study groundwater contamination from animal waste with Hochman and George Goldman, a UC Cooperative Extension economics specialist.
“The topic aligned perfectly with my interests, and my prior experience as a computer systems analyst proved extremely useful,” Zilberman wrote. “We traveled throughout Southern California to interview farmers, and I learned firsthand about heterogeneity in farm size and landholdings, the prevalence of fixed-proportion technologies and the role of credit constraints. Using these insights and newly assembled data, I developed a model comparing the effects of alternative animal waste regulations on farm profits and social welfare.”
Over his career, Zilberman’s research has been driven by current issues.
While his early work focused on animal waste and pollution regulation, he turned to technology adoption, marketing, innovation and supply chains.
“Consulting projects on drip irrigation in California deepened my understanding of water systems and generated influential research in water economics,” Zilberman wrote. “Advisory work with the EPA on pesticide regulation led to collaborations with Erik Lichtenberg and others on pesticide productivity and health effects. These methodological tools later proved valuable in my research on biotechnology and genetic engineering, which became a significant focus after 2000.”
In 2019, Zilberman was awarded the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in recognition of his work developing economic models for fundamental problems in agriculture, economics and policy. The international award granted by the Wolf Foundation is given in six categories: agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics and the arts. The prize in the agriculture category is considered the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in agriculture.
The award citation named Zilberman as “a leading protagonist in debates over water policy, environmental and resource policy in agriculture and the bioeconomy,” and highlighted his career as “a unique mixture of theoretical work, applied research and extension.”
Zilberman is one of three founders of the International Consortium of Applied Bioeconomy Research, created to build a global community of scholars working on bioeconomy policy and economics. He has served as co-editor of the Giannini Foundation publication ARE Update since 2001. In 2009, he and Gordon Rausser, former dean of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, established the Annual Review of Resource Economics and Zilberman has served as co-editor since 2016. Since 1991, he has been a co-editor of Natural Resource Management and Policy, a series of 63 books tracing the evolution of research in environmental and resource economics. He has over 400 referenced journal articles ranging from Science to ARE Update and has edited 30 books.
Zilberman has been active in the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, serving on its board and as its president in 2019.
“Only one word is needed to describe David and his contributions...SUPERB,” Eduardo Segarra, emeritus professor at Texas Tech University, wrote on Zilberman's LinkedIn page in 2014. “He represents one of the most, if not THE most, gifted and effective contributor to the agricultural and applied economics profession of our time.”
In retirement, Zilberman will serve as a professor in the UC Berkeley Graduate School.
Read more about Zilberman's career at https://professorzilberman.com/2026/01/07/transitioning-from-professor-to-professor-of-the-graduate-school-pog/.