Brad Franklin

Applied Economist
MarketLab
[email protected]

Brad Franklin is an applied economist working in the MarketLab team of The Nature Conservancy’s California chapter. Brad uses his expertise in environmental and natural resource economics to assess the value of nature-based solutions in promoting conservation goals. His work at TNC covers a broad set of topics including conservation auctions for bird habitat, investment in forest restoration, and the economics of sustainable lithium extraction.

Prior to joining TNC in 2020, Brad worked at the University of California, Riverside in the School of Public Policy on research related to water resource policy in Southern California. Before that, he worked on fisheries economics and climate change adaptation at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, Maine and on groundwater and energy policy at the International Water Management Institute in New Delhi, India. In addition, he has worked as a consultant with the Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA on the economics of water recycling and urban water markets. Brad holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Riverside.

What Brad is working on now:

I’m currently working on optimizing and scaling up Bird Returns auctions, economic analysis of 30 by 30 land conservation policy, and how to alleviate labor shortages in the forest restoration economy.