Dr. Rick Geddes is a Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. He concurrently serves as a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute of San Jose State University, a national University Transportation Center and Center of Excellence created by the U.S. Congress specializing in surface transportation policy studies. He was a commissioner on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, which reported its findings to Congress in 2008. Dr. Geddes’ research focuses on policies facilitating investment in the renovation and construction of U.S. transportation infrastructure through PPPs. He is also examining state’s decisions to pass PPP enabling laws, as and studying policies that have been effective in attracting private infrastructure investment in other countries, such as Australia. Dr. Geddes was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Australian National University in Canberra in the fall of 2009, and a Visiting Researcher at the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission in the spring of 2010. Dr. Geddes’ has conducted wide-ranging research in other fields such as electric utility reform, postal service policy, corporate governance, women’s property rights, and antitrust policy.

Dr. Geddes received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago. He has a B.A. in Economics and Finance from Towson State University.

Global Infrastructure Teaching and Training Experience

Geddes List of Representative Publications

Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships:

R. Richard Geddes and Benjamin L. Wagner, Why Do U.S. States Adopt Public-Private Partnership Enabling Legislation? Journal of Urban Economics, Vol. 78 (2013): 30-41.

Daniel Albalate, Germà Bel, and R. Richard Geddes, The Determinants of Contractual Choice for Private Involvement in Infrastructure Projects,”Public Money & Management, Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 2014). [working paper version]

Daniel Albalate, Germà Bel, and R. Richard Geddes, Recovery Risk and Labor Costs in Public-Private Partnerships: Contractual Choice in the US Water Industry, Local Government Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3 (2013): 332-351.

With Links To:

Daniel Albalate, Germà Bel, and R. Richard Geddes, Strong versus Weak Vertical Integration: Contractual Choice and PPPs in the United States, Review of Industrial Organization, (provisional acceptance).

R. Richard Geddes, Sri Vedachalam and Susan Riha,  Public-Private Partnerships and Contract Choice in India’s Water and Wastewater Sectors, Public Works Management & Policy (2015): 1-26.

Omid M. Rouhani, H. Oliver Gao, and R. Richard Geddes, Policy Lessons for Regulating Public-Private Partnership Tolling Schemes in Urban Environments, Transport Policy, Vol. 41 (July 2015): 68-79.

Daniel Albalate, Paula Bel, Germà Bel, and R. Richard Geddes, Risk Mitigation and Sharing in Motorway PPPs: A Comparative Policy Analysis of Alternative Approaches, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis (in press).

Postal Economics:

R. Richard Geddes, Policy Watch: Reform of the U.S. Postal Service, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19:3 (Summer 2005) 217-232.

R. Richard Geddes, Pricing by State-Owned Enterprises: The Case of Postal Services, Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 29 (2008): 575-591.

With Links To:

R. Richard Geddes. The Economic Effects of Postal Reorganization, Journal of Regulatory Economics, 13 (1998): 139-156.

R. Richard Geddes, Do Vital Economists Reach a Policy Conclusion on Postal Reform? Economic Journal Watch, 1:1 (March 2004) 61-81.

R. Richard Geddes, Saving the Mail: How to Solve the Problems of the U.S. Postal Service, AEI Evaluative Studies; Washington, DC: AEI Press (2003).

Michael A. Crew and R. Richard Geddes, A Business Model for USPS in Michael A. Crew and Timothy J. Brennan, eds., The Role of the Postal and Delivery Sector in a Digital Age, (London: Edward Elgar), joint with Michael A, Crew, 2014. [chapter]

Women’s Property Rights:

Rick Geddes, Dean Lueck, and Sharon Tennyson, Human Capital Accumulation and the Expansion of Women’s Property Rights, Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 55, No 4 (2012): 839 – 867. 7.

Rick Geddes and Dean Lueck, The Gains from Self-Ownership and the Expansion of Women’s Rights, American Economic Review, Vol. 92, No. 4 (September 2002): 1079-92.

With Links To:

R. Richard Geddes and Sharon Tennyson, Passage of the Married Women’s Property Acts and Earnings Acts in the United States: 1850 to 1920, Research in Economic History; Vol. 29 (2013): 145-189.

R. Richard Geddes and Paul J. Zak, The Rule of One-Third, Journal of Legal Studies, 31:1 (January 2002) 119-137.

Regulatory Economics and Corporate Governance:

Werner Troesken and Rick Geddes, Municipalizing American Waterworks, 1897-1915, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Fall 2003): 373-400.

Rick Geddes and H.D. Vinod, CEO Tenure, Board Composition, and Regulation, Journal of Regulatory Economics , Vol. 21, No. 2 (2002): 217-235.

R. Richard Geddes, Ownership, Regulation, and Managerial Monitoring in the Electric Utility Industry, Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 40, No. 1 (April 1997): 261-288.

With Links To:

Rick Geddes and H.D. Vinod, CEO Age and Outside Directors: A Hazard Analysis, Review of Industrial Organization, Vol. 12 (December 1997): 767-780.

“Public Utilities,” in Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, Vol. III: The Regulation of Contracts, Geerit De Geest and Boudewijn Bouckaert, eds., London: Edward Elgar (2000) 1162-1205.

Peter H. Griffes et al., Emerging Issues in the Regulation of Electric Utilities, Resources and Energy, 14 (1992) 3-35.