Hi Folks,
I'm very happy that John asked me to guest blog this week. (Thanks John! Hi Tim!)
I want to say a few things about myself so that you know where I am coming from.
- I just finished a PhD at UC Davis. My dissertation is an institutional case study of the largest water utility in the country -- the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. It's a story of evolution, path-dependency, scarcity and mismanagement.
- I went to grad school to study development economics but ended up in natural resource economics. This background may explain my interest in topics that combine public/private, economic/political, and moral/corrupt themes. Although I came in as a market fundamentalist and fan of efficiency, I have a strong respect for equitable outcomes.
- I call things stupid when I don't like them. I don't often post on cool stuff because I am busy with the stupid things such as the farm bill, ethanol, the Salton Sea, destruction of the salmon fisheries, bottled water, and development in environmentally sensitive areas. I have more nuanced positions on desalination, carbon taxes, water pricing, and global warming.
- My postdoc (Wantrup Fellow @ UC Berkeley) is on the political economy of natural resources. I am planning to spend a lot of time on water markets (design, testing and implementation). I'll be working with Michael Hanemann.
- Right now, I am in DC to work on corruption and regulation, water and development at the Mercatus Center.
- I'm a born and bred Californian, so you're going to hear some westside perspectives on peace, love, war -- and water :)
So, with that said, please feel free to send me any comments, questions, challenges or annoyances that you'd like me to discuss. (Hopefully I am not the annoyance!) Although I'll be adding to my blog (aguanomics) this week, I'll save my best (?) stuff for here -- and I'll answer every query.
Cheers!
