Brian Wright Name AARES Distinguished Fellow

February 23, 2012

In February 2012, Brian Wright, a professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the department's chair, was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society – the highest honor the society awards – in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field. Wright was one of only three people honored with the distinction this year.

Wright received a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from the University of New England, Armidale, a master’s and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, and served on the faculty of Yale University’s economics department before coming to UC Berkeley in 1985. He is a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association.
His research interests include economics of markets for storable commodities, market stabilization, agricultural policy, industrial organization, public finance, invention incentives, intellectual property rights, the economics of research and development, and the economics of conservation and innovation of genetic resources.

In addition to publishing in leading journals, he co-authored or co-edited several books, including Storage and Commodity Markets; Reforming Agricultural Commodity Policy, Saving Seeds: The Economics of Conserving Genetic Resources at the CGIAR Centers, and Accessing Biodiversity and Sharing the Benefits: Lessons from Implementing the Convention on Biodiversity.

The Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society seeks to foster interest in and understanding of the economic issues affecting primary industries, resources, and the environment.