I am an economist whose research spans contracts, property rights, economic organization, economic history, law and economics, and environmental and natural resource economics. Throughout my career, my work has combined economic theory and empirical analysis to examine the institutions and organizations that shape economic activity, with particular emphasis on agriculture, natural resources, and the governance of wildlife.

I am Professor of Economics and Affiliate Professor of Law at Indiana University. From 2016 to 2022, I served as the founding Director of the Program on Governance of Natural Resources at the Ostrom Workshop. I have also been a guest lecturer and visiting faculty member at universities in the United States and abroad, including Yale Law School, the University of Toronto, and the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy.

I have published extensively in economics and related fields. My books include The Nature of the Farm (with Douglas W. Allen, MIT Press, 2003) and the edited volume Wildlife Policy: Law and Economics Perspectives (with Karen Bradshaw, Resources for the Future Press, 2012). I am currently completing The Governance of Wildlife, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. The book examines the evolution of wildlife governance from antiquity to the modern administrative state and explains the economic logic underlying domestication, extermination, conservation, and restoration. 

I am also a Senior Consultant with Compass Lexecon, where my consulting draws on research in contracts, property rights, law and economics, economic organization, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource economics.

I was raised on a wheat and cattle farm in North Dakota. Prior to my academic career, I was a seasonal wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, including two seasons as a smokejumper based in McCall, Idaho. I now divide my time between Indiana and Montana.