About

       Governments almost always implement public policies that deviate from the ‘first-best’ policies that economists and scientists recommend and that are instead ‘second-best’ or imperfect. My own experiences growing up working poor in a trailer park near the political capital of Illinois with an immigrant and a mentally ill parent provided me with countless opportunities to reflect on how constraints on decision-making, reconciled by individuals with diverse motivations, ethical systems and access to resources, often give rise to imperfect policies that deviate from those proposed by academics or other policy elites. These imperfections are especially acute in efforts to address complex, large-scale societal challenges (e.g., climate change, the energy transition, COVID-19), whose scope is often poorly aligned with the scale at which decisions are made and about which there exists broad societal disagreement.

       My research aims to enhance our societal understanding of when and why public policies are imperfect with the goal to guide real world public policies to have fewer imperfections. To understand when policies are imperfect, I evaluate the economic effects of current and proposed policies given the presence of pre-existing policies and multiple market failures (i.e., the welfare impacts of policies in the ‘real-world’). To understand why policies are imperfect, I examine the incentives, revealed preferences, institutions, and decision-making processes that explain the emergence of imperfect policies (i.e., the public economics/political economy of policies under ‘realpolitik’). Knowing when policies are imperfect is important for understanding whether the policy path we are on can be improved upon. By deepening our understanding of why policies are imperfect we may be able to identify real-world policy breakthroughs that we may otherwise never see. Ultimately, this work aims to guide future policy to be more stable, efficient, equitable, and agency enhancing.

       Thematically, my research focuses on large-scale policies that target significant market failures (i.e., pollution, market power, behavioral errors) related to climate change, energy and transportation systems, public health, and the urban sector such as: 1. uncoordinated efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; 2. the political economy of domestic climate policy; 3. policies targeting the electric power system; 4. biofuel policies; and 5. public health and urban challenges. Methodologically, my research advances theoretical and empirical models grounded in the fields of environmental and energy economics, applied microeconomics, public finance, and political economy such as computational multi-market equilibrium models, optimal power flow models, models of strategic decision-making, and legislative bargaining models. This work is often inter-disciplinary; for example, linking multi-market equilibrium models with models of air pollution transport and damage assessment or multi-market equilibrium models with models of policymaking, and uses cutting-edge computational methods. I have published as a first/solo author in top economics journals that span my active research fields and that are consistently among the top 5% of all economics journals as well as other high impact inter-disciplinary journals (e.g., Environmental Science & Technology); for examples, please see my research. The work of my research group has been cited by both federal and state regulators as well as in the popular press. In support of my active research program, I have received grant awards in excess of half a million dollars and have mentored a diverse and inclusive group of undergraduate and graduate students in guided research activities.

        As large-scale policy problems demand complex interdisciplinary answers, I am interested in developing quality interactions with both economists and non-economists that seek to integrate economic models with models of political economy, physical, engineering, chemical, electrical, public health, and ecological systems. To this end, an ideal collaboration is one which fosters and extends our knowledge of economics at the same time that it extends a collaborator's primary field of knowledge. My educational background and current research demonstrate both this commitment as well as its promise to deepen our understanding of the world in profound ways. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in such a collaboration. 

        I completed my Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2014 where I studied environmental and energy economics as a member of Dr. Antonio M. Bento's research group.  I also hold a M.S. in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park, where I studied environmental and development policy, and two B.A.s in economics and political science from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Outside of the office, I enjoy spending time in nature with my wife, our daughter, and our two dogs.