I'm an Associate Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island. My main interests are in water economics, cooperation and behavioral economics, environmental markets, non-market valuation, and fisheries. I'm a member of the Water Cluster at URI which is a leading group of interdisciplinary scientists interested in water who work across disciplines (web.uri.edu/watere2s2/). I'm also an Associate Editor at Water & Resource Economics (www.journals.elsevier.com/water-resources-and-economics). Below are topics that I'm currently interested in.
Offshore Wind Development
Over the past two years I have supported fisher groups in mitigating impacts to their industries and have an interest in the continued planning and development of wind farms off the coast. I'm hoping to quantify impacts of wind farms on commercial and recreational fishing to improve planning on future windfarms and to improve the process of siting and mitigating impacts.
Historical Water Economics
The use of water and the commoditization of water in history can have important impacts to economic geography and growth. I have started a project to look at the value of water in the Industrial Revolution in America and how hydrogeology shaped American industry. This is primarily archival research and takes a look at various perspectives on economic growth, while focusing on the Northeastern United States textile manufacturers in the 19th century.
Water Economics
The main components of my research have been in groundwater economics and thinking about the connections between hydrology and optimal groundwater management. Recent advances in the field have explored how spatial and physical constraints affect groundwater use and management. My aim is to guide models and groundwater management initiatives to better inter-temporal and spatial policies regarding the use of groundwater.
Cooperation
I also have a strong interest in cooperation regarding natural resource use. This interest extends to modeling collective action, understanding the cognitive underpinnings for cooperation, and policies that can prime cooperation in common pool resources. This has led to some recent work in the evolutionary biology space of cooperative heuristics in common pool resources which I hope to extend to a collective action framework. One particularly interesting aspect of cooperation that I am interested in is communication. Specifically, how and what types of language lead to cooperative outcomes and why.
Communication
I have recently taken to learning how to analyse the content of communication and dialogue and am implementing this in aspects of research regarding cooperation and management of common pool resources.
Decision Theory
I aim to apply models of decision making under uncertainty to natural resource decisions to understand how sensitive our reduced form estimations that typically model behavior with assumptions consistent with fully rational expections are compared to models with psychological evidence which are bounded rational. Much of this work is currently focused on the decision theory called Case-based Decision Theory and applying this theory to empirical data.
Hedonic Valuation
I also use hedonic valuation regularly as a means for non-market valuation. Most notably in the economics literature regarding shale gas extraction and the externalities driven from proximity to shale gas exploration.
Offshore Wind Development
Over the past two years I have supported fisher groups in mitigating impacts to their industries and have an interest in the continued planning and development of wind farms off the coast. I'm hoping to quantify impacts of wind farms on commercial and recreational fishing to improve planning on future windfarms and to improve the process of siting and mitigating impacts.
Historical Water Economics
The use of water and the commoditization of water in history can have important impacts to economic geography and growth. I have started a project to look at the value of water in the Industrial Revolution in America and how hydrogeology shaped American industry. This is primarily archival research and takes a look at various perspectives on economic growth, while focusing on the Northeastern United States textile manufacturers in the 19th century.
Water Economics
The main components of my research have been in groundwater economics and thinking about the connections between hydrology and optimal groundwater management. Recent advances in the field have explored how spatial and physical constraints affect groundwater use and management. My aim is to guide models and groundwater management initiatives to better inter-temporal and spatial policies regarding the use of groundwater.
Cooperation
I also have a strong interest in cooperation regarding natural resource use. This interest extends to modeling collective action, understanding the cognitive underpinnings for cooperation, and policies that can prime cooperation in common pool resources. This has led to some recent work in the evolutionary biology space of cooperative heuristics in common pool resources which I hope to extend to a collective action framework. One particularly interesting aspect of cooperation that I am interested in is communication. Specifically, how and what types of language lead to cooperative outcomes and why.
Communication
I have recently taken to learning how to analyse the content of communication and dialogue and am implementing this in aspects of research regarding cooperation and management of common pool resources.
Decision Theory
I aim to apply models of decision making under uncertainty to natural resource decisions to understand how sensitive our reduced form estimations that typically model behavior with assumptions consistent with fully rational expections are compared to models with psychological evidence which are bounded rational. Much of this work is currently focused on the decision theory called Case-based Decision Theory and applying this theory to empirical data.
Hedonic Valuation
I also use hedonic valuation regularly as a means for non-market valuation. Most notably in the economics literature regarding shale gas extraction and the externalities driven from proximity to shale gas exploration.