Dr. Rick Geddes

Visiting Fellow with Hoover Institution’s State & Local Governance Initiative at Stanford University
Professor, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University

Abstract

This research examines how, in a t post-war environment, Ukrainian policy makers can use the latest developments in infrastructure policy to rebuild its energy infrastructure in an efficient, sustainable, and future-proofed manner. Those developments include innovative public-private partnerships, bundling projects together, value capture in a variety of settings, and new ways of charging for infrastructure use. A key prerequisite for innovative delivery is developing strong public sector capacity among public infrastructure asset owners. Although Ukraine’s economy was not yet ready for EU membership, many useful pre-war policy reforms were under development. Despite its enormous cost, the war-imposed pause in reform provides an opportunity for Ukraine to adopt preeminent global infrastructure technologies as well as the best procurement practices.  This presentation will review policies to ensure that Ukraine has resilient, green, efficient, and technology-enabled energy infrastructure. Innovative policy approaches also present an opportunity to rebuild Ukraine’s aging Soviet-era infrastructure in a “smart” manner even if not war damaged.

Biography

Rick Geddes is currently a Visiting Fellow with Hoover Institution’s State & Local Governance Initiative at Stanford University. He is on a one-year sabbatical from his permanent position as professor in Cornell’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell. He is Founding Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy, or CPIP.  Rick is a member of the graduate fields of Systems Engineering, Regional Science, and Economics. He is concurrently a Non-Resident Senior Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Previously, Rick was a U.S. Presidential appointee as a Commissioner on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.
 
Rick has published over fifty peer-reviewed journal articles on a wide variety of tropics. His research centers on the funding, financing and delivery of major infrastructure projects, road pricing, and utility regulation, among other topics. His publications have appeared in numerous academic journals including Nature, the American Economic Review, Journal of Regulatory Economics, Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Law & Economics, and Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, among many others. He is author of the 2011 AEI book entitled, The Road to Renewal: Private Investment in U.S. Transportation Infrastructure. Rick holds MA and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago, and a BS in economics and finance from Towson State University.

Related Resources