The research I began as a post doc sought to understand the social processes that drive ecological and epidemiological change.  I’ve been at the forefront of introducing adaptive behaviors into epidemiological models utilizing the assumptions, frameworks, and rigor of work found in resource economics. By incorporating ideas from economics, such as rational and adaptive expectations, my coauthors and I have studied the feedback loops found in all social-ecological systems between social and life science phenomena and human behavior: for example, the spread of pests, diseases, and ideas. This has included systems that are centrally controlled (e.g., agriculture, invasive species control, or public health mandates) or decentralized among individuals (e.g., private disease-risk decisions or foraging behaviors/patterns).

• Morin BR, Perrings C, Kinzig A, Levin S. The social benefits of private infectious disease-risk mitigation. Theoretical ecology. 2015 Nov 1;8(4):467-79. (link)
• Perrings C, Castillo-Chavez C, Chowell G, Daszak P, Fenichel EP, Finnoff D, Horan RD, Kilpatrick AM, Kinzig AP, Kuminoff NV, Levin S, Morin B, Smith K, Springborn M, Velasquez L, Villalobos C. Merging economics and epidemiology to improve the prediction and management of infectious disease. EcoHealth. 2014 Dec 1;11(4):464-75. (link)
• Morin BR, Fenichel EP, Castillo‐Chavez C. SIR dynamics with economically driven contact rates. Natural resource modeling. 2013 Nov 1;26(4):505-25. (link)
• Fenichel EP, Castillo-Chavez C, Ceddia MG, Chowell G, Parra PA, Hickling GJ, Holloway G, Horan R, Morin B, Perrings C, Springborn M. Adaptive human behavior in epidemiological models. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2011 Apr 12;108(15):6306-11 (link)