I seek to understand how the incentives presented by natural resource management affect outcomes for resource users. As an economist, I draw on tools in game theory, econometrics and experimental economics to understand how management operates in different resource and market contexts.

Fisheries are an exciting application precisely because every resource, group of harvesters, and regulatory framework presents a novel combination of incentives under which to observe behavior. In data rich fisheries, I model the choices of individual food system actors to understand how management alters individual behavior and aggregate outcomes. Recent projects include understanding why consumers feel differently about farming fish than farming beef, chicken and pork; and an economically sophisticated management strategy evaluation showing processors do not create value from the larger sockeye runs that would be associated with increased escapement goals in Bristol Bay. I also leverage insights from data rich studies and the Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) framework in low income countries, to co-create guidance for leveraging fishery resources into sustainable food and livelihoods for harvesters, processors and traders, and communities.

Collaborations in numerous fisheries around the work gives me a cross-sectional perspective that include designing and facilitating workshops to develop theories of change for fishery improvement projects, supported by systematic data from around the world. I teach lower division introductory resource economics, upper division economics of food systems, and a PhD field seminar in fishery economics.

I earned my Ph.D. in Social Science from the California Institute of Technology, and an Sc.B. in Applied Math and Economics from Brown University.