As of 2024[update] he is an Emeritus Professor of economics in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and was previously University Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy at North Carolina State University.
[4] He has published more than 300 academic works that have been cited over 7,000 times,[5] which includes 15 books and over 200 peer-reviewed articles.
Smith briefly left NC State to serve as Arts and Sciences Professor Of Environmental Economics at Duke University in 1994 before returning to NC State in 1999.
[7] While at NC State, Smith founded the Camp Resources workshop for environmental economics in 1993, which has met annually since its establishment.
In 2004, Smith was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of very few environmental economists to achieve such a recognition.