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Richard Howitt

  • Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, and Chair, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 1975–present
  • Supervisor, AAEA Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award Winners, 1976, 1990, 2009
  • Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award, University of California, Davis, 2008
  • Hugo B. Fisher Award, California Water and Environmental Modeling Forum, 2008
  • Distinguished Scholar Award, WAEA, 2007
  • American Academy of Science’s National Research Council Committees on Water Privatization, National Streamflow Information Systems and River Science at the USGS, 1999–2006
  • Quality of Research Discovery Award, AAEA, 1976, 2006
  • CalFed Cost Allocation Advisory Committee, 2004–2006
  • Associate Editor, Water Resources Research, 1990–1994, 2000–2005
  • Supervisor, AAEA Outstanding MS Dissertation Award, 2001
  • PhD, University of California, Davis, 1975
  • MS, University of California, Davis, 1971
  • BS Oregon State University, 1970

Richard Howitt has served the field of agricultural economics for over 30 years through research, public policy, teaching, service, and leadership. Howitt has spent his career at the University of California, Davis where he continues to serve as Chair of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Howitt’s research program focuses on three main areas: modeling methods for agricultural and environmental policy analysis; policy analysis applied to water allocation problems and related issues; and applied dynamic analysis of resource allocation problems. He has spent significant time on the interface between water science and water politics in California, the west, and internationally which has influenced the development of comprehensive water marketing institutions in many regions. His research includes a diverse range of agricultural resource topics, including multidisciplinary collaborations with hydrologists, engineers, and agronomists including his collaboration with engineer Jay Lund on the Calvin Project which has developed and maintained a large economic and engineering model of the California water system.

Howitt’s research has been published in several major journals, not only in the fields of agricultural, resource, and environmental economics, but also in publications outside the scope of economics through his collaborations with agronomists, hydrologists, engineers, climatologists, fisheries biologists, ecologists, geologists, and soil and plant scientists.