David Sunding holds the Thomas J. Graff Chair in Environmental and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, where he is a professor in the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics. He is a founding director of the Berkeley Water Center and currently serves as the chair of his department.
He has published extensively in the fields of environmental and resource economics, water resources, land use, regulation and law and economics. He has won important awards for his research, including grants from the National Science Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, State of California, and several private foundations.
Prof. Sunding frequently advises on the development and evaluation of environmental and natural resource policies. He has served on panels of the National Academy of Sciences and the USEPA’s Science Advisory Board, and has advised federal agencies and state governments. He is currently assisting the State of California with its development of the $25 billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
He completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1989. Prior to his current position, he served as a senior economist at President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has been a visiting professor in the Woods Institute of the Environment at Stanford University, and began his career as an assistant professor of economics and law at Boston College. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Econometric Society and the American Law and Economics Association. An avid mountain biker, he lives in Marin County with his wife and two children.
University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics, 1989
University of California, Los Angeles
M.A. in African Area Studies, 1986
Claremont McKenna College
B.A. in Economics, 1983
“Optimal Recycling Policy for Used Lubricating Oil: The Case of California’s Used Oil Management Policy.” With Stephen Hamilton. Environmental and Resource Economics (2014), DOI: 10.1007/s10640-014-9812-x.
“The Impact of Water Price Uncertainty on the Adoption of Precision Irrigation Systems.” With Karina Schoengold. Agricultural Economics (2014), DOI: 10.1111/agec.12118.
“Potential Economic Impacts of Environmental Flows Following a Potential Listing of Endangered Texas Freshwater Mussels,” With Brad Wolaver, Cassandra Cook, Stephen Hamilton, Bridget Scanlon, Michael Young, Xianli Xu and Robert Reedy. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (2014), DOI: 10.1111/jawr.12171.
“Land Markets and the Value of Water Supply: Hedonic Analysis using Panel Data.” With Steven Buck and Maximillian Auffhammer. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 96(2014): 953-969.
“Conserving Endangeed Species through Regulation of Urban Development: The Case of California Vernal Pools.” With Jonathan Terhorst. Land Economics 90(2014): 290-305.
“Environmental Policy with Collective Waste Disposal.” With Stephen Hamilton, Thomas Sproul and David Zilberman. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 66(2013): 337-346.
Water and the California Economy. With Ellen Hanak, Jay Lund, Barton Thompson, et al. Public Policy Institute of California, 2012.
“Hedonic Analysis with Locally Weighted Regression: Measuring the Shadow Value of Housing Regulation in Southern California.” With Aaron Swoboda. Regional Science and Urban Economics 40(2011): 550-573.
“On The Spatial Nature of the Groundwater Pumping Externality.” With Nicholas Brozovic and David Zilberman. Resource and Energy Economics 32(2010): 154-164.
Economic Impacts of Water Supply Disruptions Caused by Seismic Events in the Bay-Delta Estuary. September 2010.
“Improving Groundwater Management to Cope with Reduced Surface Water Imports: The Case of Los Angeles County.” With Steve Hamilton and Newsha Ajami. In A. Findikakis, ed., Groundwater Management Practices, Leiden: CRC Press, 2010.
Economic Impacts of Residential Water Shortages in California. With Steve Hamilton. April 2010.
