Research

My research interests are property rights and natural resources, often together, but not always. Many times the research relates to water (e.g. development of irrigation systems, organizational structure, groundwater management, instream water flows, residential water pricing). Taking interdisciplinary approaches, I have worked with fantastic political scientists, legal scholars, environmental scholars, and engineers - especially hydrologists.  Working with students at Mines and others I have also been drawn into minerals, forestry, wind energy, and bitcoin. My contribution is often as an applied econometrician and as an economic historian.

Below is a list of my publications, working papers, and funded research projects.

Published Research:

1.   “State Trust Lands and Natural Resource Use in the US Northwest.” (with Eric Alston) Journal of Historical Political Economy. Vol. 2, No. 4 (March 2023) http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/115.00000041

2. “The Importance of Fit in Groundwater Self-Governance.” (with Landon T. Marston, Sam Zipper, Jonah J. Allen*, James J. Butler Jr., Sukrati Gautam, and David J. Yu) Environmental Research Letters. Vol. 17, No. 11  (October 2022)  https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9a5e

3.  “Individual to Collective Adaptation through Incremental Institutional Change in Colorado Groundwater Governance.” (with Jonathon Loos, Krister Andersson, Shauna Bulger, Kelsey Cody, Michael Cox and Alex Gebben*) Frontiers in Environmental Science. (October 2022) https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.958597

4. “The Effects of Individualized Water Rates on Use and Equity.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. (June 2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102673

5. " Dynamics of the Legal Environment and the Development of Communal Irrigation Systems." International Journal of the Commons. Vol. 16, No. 1 (March 2022). http://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1112 

6. “Development Derailed: Uncertain Property Rights and Coordinated Investment.” (with Eric Alston) Journal of Law and Economics. Vol. 65, No. 1 (February 2022). https://doi.org/10.1086/715832 

7. “Center Pivot Irrigation Systems and Where to Find Them: A Deep Learning Approach to Provide Inputs to Hydrologic and Economic Models.” (with Daniel Cooley* and Reed Maxwell) Frontiers in Water. (December 2021). https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2021.786016  

8. "Water Storage and Agricultural Resilience to Drought: Historical Evidence of the Capacity and Institutional Limits in the United States" (with Eric Edwards) Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 16. (December 2021)  https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac358a

9. “Individualistic Culture Increases Economic Mobility in the U.S.” (with Bryan Leonard) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. 118, No. 37 (September 2021) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107273118

10. The Relative Economic Merits of Alternative Water Right Systems. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, January 2021 Vol. 105) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102389  Working paper version: (http://econbus-papers.mines.edu/working-papers/wp201908.pdf) 

11. Investigating Tradeoffs of Green to Grey Stormwater Infrastructure Using a Planning-Level Decision Support Tool. (with Elizabeth M. Gallo*, Colin D. Bell, Chelsea Panos, and Terri S. Hogue. Water, July 2020  Vol. 12, No. 7)  https://doi.org/10.3390/w12072005  

12. Instream Flow Right within the Prior Appropriation Doctrine: Insights from Colorado Natural Resources Journal, Winter 2019 Vol. 59, No. 1) https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol59/iss1/8

13. The Role of Irrigation in the Development of Agriculture in the United States.” (with Eric Edwards) Journal of Economic History, December 2018  Vol. 78, No. 4 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050718000608

14. Economic Incentives and Crowding-in Social Norms in a Groundwater Commons Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, July  2018, Vol 90) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2018.04.007

15. From Decentralized to Centralized Irrigation Management Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, July 2018, Vol. 151) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.04.003

16. Wealth and the Distribution of Benefits from Tropical Forests: Implications for REDD+ (with Krister Andersson, Lee J. Also  Amy Duchelle, Esther Mwangi, Anne Larson, Claudio de Sassi, Erin Sill, William D. Sunderlin, and Grace Wong, Land Use Policy, March 2018 Vol. 72) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.01.012 

17. Responding to a Groundwater Crisis: The Effects of Self-Imposed Economic Incentives (with Krister Anderson, Kelsey Cody, Michael Cox and Darren Ficklin, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economist, December 2017 Vol. 4 (4)) https://doi.org/10.1086/692610  

18. Common Property Resources and New Entrants: Uncovering the Bias and Effects of New Users Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economist, March 2016 Vol. 3 (1)) http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/683683

19. Emergence of Collective Action in a Groundwater Commons: Irrigators in the San Luis Valley of Colorado (with Kelsey Cody, Michael Cox, and Krister Andersson  Society and Natural Resources, 2015  Vol. 28 (4) 2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2014.970736

20. Payment for Environmental Services: Hypotheses and Evidence (with Lee Alston and Krister Andersson, Annual Review of Resource Economics, 2013, Vol. 5, pp. 139-159) http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-091912-151830   Previously published as an NBER Working Paper

Papers submitted:

21. “Water and Wind: Tradeoffs of Irrigation and Clean Energy.” (with Daniel Cooley*)  Revisions Requested

Papers underway:

22. “Center Pivot Irrigation Systems as a Form of Drought Risk Mitigation in Humid Regions.” (with Daniel Cooley*) NBER Working Paper No 30093

23. “Development in Mineral Rights: An Historical Comparison between Chile and Peru.” (with Emilio Castillo*) 

24. “Which Average Price Do Consumers Respond To? The Effect and Welfare Implications of Fixed Fees” (with Casey Wichman) 

25. “Legacy of the Northern Pacific Land Grant on Resource Development.” (with Eric Alston)

26. “National Forests and Private Interests: Effects of Uncertainty on Timber.” (with Eric Alston)

27. "Is Saving Water Enough? The Economic Sustainability of a Groundwater Fee." (with Alex Gebben)

Funded Research Projects:

US Department of Agriculture, AFRI Grant #67023-29421, Co-PI ($500,000) (with Krister Andersson)           

“Innovative Governance of Scarce Surface Water and Groundwater for Irrigation of Production Agriculture in Southwestern United States.”  2019-2023

NSF/USDA INFEWS, Grant #67020-30130, Co-PI ($2,100,000) (with Bonnie Colby, Laura Condon, Adrianne Kroepsch, and Reed Maxwell)                      

“Groundwater and the Future of Sustainable Agriculture: Balancing Economic, Energy, and water constraints on food production”   2020-2024

NSF SES, Grant #2117660, PI ($530,000) (with Eric Alston, Bryan Leonard, and Joseph Price)                                                            

“Property, People, and Progress along Frontiers: How Land Policy Affects Selection and Outcomes” 2021-2024

NSF DISES, Grant #2108196, Co-PI ($1,600,000) (with James Butler, Landon Marston, David Yu, and Samuel Zipper)                                                       

“Toward Resilient and Adaptive Community-driven Management of Groundwater Dependent Agricultural systems”.   2022-2026