Senior personnel
Charles J. Cicchetti
Charles J. Cicchetti is a member of Pacific Economics Group, a Senior Advisor to Pacific Economics Group Research, and a Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California. He previously held positions as the Jeffrey J. Miller Professor of Government, Business, and the Economy at Southern Cal, Managing Director of Arthur Andersen Economic Consulting, Co-Chairman of Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc., and Deputy Director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Center at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was co-founder of Madison Consulting Group, which merged with National Economic Research Associates, Inc. (NERA), where he served as Senior Vice President. Dr. Cicchetti chaired the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and directed the Wisconsin Energy Office. He did post-doctoral research at Resources for the Future, served as first economist of the Environmental Defense Fund and was a professor of economics and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He received a B.A. from Colorado College and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University, both in economics.
Dr. Cicchetti has testified before regulatory agencies in the U.S. and abroad on tariff design, the rate of return, and the organizational structure of the natural gas, electricity, water and telecommunications industries. He has prepared expert testimony for various federal proceedings on a variety of topics. His work in environmental litigation includes experience in natural resource damage assessment and cost allocation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Oil Pollution Act. He has worked in developing nations throughout the world and designed the World Bank's Build, Own, Operate, and Turnover (BOOT) public/private investment program for infrastructure development.
The author of numerous books and articles, his publications include: Going Green and Getting Regulation Right: A Primer for Energy Efficiency , Restructuring Electricity Markets: A World Perspective Post California and Enron, Restructuring Electricity Markets: A World Perspective, Alaskan Oil: Alternative Routes and Markets; Perspectives on Power, co-authored with Edward Berlin and William Gillen; The Marginal Cost and Pricing of Electricity: An Applied Approach, with William Gillen and Paul Smolensky; The Costs of Congestion: An Economic Analysis of Wilderness Recreation, with V. Kerry Smith; and Forecasting Recreation in the United States. He has edited Energy Systems Forecasting, Planning and Pricing, with W.K. Foell; and Studies in Electric Utility Regulation, with John Jurewitz.
| Contact Dr. Cicchetti by e-mail: cicchett@usc.edu |
| Curriculum Vitae and PDFs |
Jeffrey A. Dubin
Jeffrey Dubin is a member of Pacific Economics Group and a Senior Advisor to Pacific Economics Group Research. He is also an Adjunct Full Professor of Economics at UCLA's Anderson School of Business, and Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He recently retired as Professor of Economics at the California Institute of Technology, where he taught for 25 years. Dr. Dubin earned his undergraduate degree in Economics with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His research focuses on microeconomic modeling with particular emphasis on discrete choice econometrics. Current research concerns include contingent valuation methods, discrete choice econometrics, effects of welfare and entitlement programs on unemployment, energy economics and tax compliance.
He is the author of a number of publications, including Consumer Durable Choice and the Demand for Electricity, "Experimental Estimates of the Effects of Wage Subsidies," with R. Douglas Rivers, "Selection Bias in Linear Regression, Logit and Probit Models," with R. Douglas Rivers, and "The Use and Misuse of Surveys in Economic Analysis: Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under CERCLA," with Charles J. Cicchetti and Louis Wide. Dr. Dubin is also the co-author of SST, a statistical software package.
| Contact Dr. Dubin by email: | jadubin@alum.mit.edu |
| Curriculum Vitae (.html) | |
| University Homepage |
Lawrence R. Kaufmann
Lawrence R. Kaufmann is a member of Pacific Economics Group and a Senior Advisor to Pacific Economics Group Research. He develops and undertakes supporting empirical research on performance based regulation (PBR) and competitive market reforms for energy utilities. He has worked with many leading utilities in North America on these issues and has spearheaded our overseas practice. Dr. Kaufmann has been particularly active in Australia, where he has advised energy utilities in five of the six Australian states on a variety of topics. His specialties include PBR plan design, statistical benchmarking, estimating total factor productivity, and incentive regulation theory. He is also a specialist and expert witness on service quality issues. Dr. Kaufmann is an author of over a dozen publications. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin. Before joining PEG, he was a Senior Economist at Christensen Associates. He has also worked as an international economist for a large commercial bank.
Contact Dr. Kaufmann by e-mail: lkaufmann@earthlink.net
Colin M. Long
Colin M. Long is a member of Pacific Economics Group and a Senior Advisor to Pacific Economics Group Research. He has more than twenty years litigation and consulting experience, specializing in energy and utility-related matters. He is an experienced federal and state court litigator at both the trial and appellate level. He has extensive experience working with regulated industries, particularly in cases involving mergers and acquisitions and matters before the FERC and state regulatory commissions.
Mr. Long received a BA in political science, cum laude, from the University of Southern California and a J.D. from Loyola University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the State of California, the Ninth Circuit District Courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.
With Dr. Cicchetti, Mr. Long has co-authored several recent articles with respect to energy issues, including "ISOs and Transcos: What's At Stake," "Politics As Usual: A Roadmap to Backlash, Backtracking and Re-Regulation," and "Transmission Products and Pricing: Hidden Agendas."
Contact Mr. Long by e-mail: colin.long@navigantconsulting.com
Mark Newton Lowry
Mark Newton Lowry is the President of Pacific Economics Group Research and a Senior Advisor to Pacific Economics Group. He has more than twenty five years of experience as an industry economist. The focus of his work for the past two decades has been alternative regulation (Altreg) and statistical benchmarking. Regarded as an international authority on modern regulation, he supervises empirical work on utility performance and industry price and productivity trends, designs Altreg plans, and gives expert witness testimony. Revenue decoupling has been a recent focus of his Altreg work. He has testified in proceedings leading to the approval of ten decoupling plans and is currently working on three plans for electric utilities. He has for many years advised the Edison Electric Institute on Altreg issues and is an instructor in EEI's Advanced Rates School. Dr. Lowry has also served as an advisor to the Canadian Electricity Association. He has testified many times each on Altreg and benchmarking issues. His testimony has featured path-breaking applications of production economics in the regulatory arena. Other areas of expertise have included natural gas storage, agricultural economics, and codes of competitive conduct.
Before joining PEG, Dr. Lowry was a Vice President at Christensen Associates and directed its Regulatory Strategy group. He provided almost all of Christensen Associates' testimony on energy utility Altreg and benchmarking during his nine years there. The key members of his staff at Christensen joined him at PEG. Dr. Lowry has also served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mineral Economics at Pennsylvania State University. His research and teaching featured the use of mathematical theory and econometrics in industry analysis. The role of storage in markets for petroleum products was a research specialty. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Montreal, Canada.
Dr. Lowry attended Princeton University and holds a BA in Ibero-American Studies and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin. He is fluent in Spanish and can advise clients in that language. His resume includes an extensive list of professional publications and public speaking engagements.
Kevin Spellman
Kevin Spellman is a senior advisor to PEG Research, specializing in utility cost of capital and other financial issues. He began his professional investment career in 1993 and has been teaching at the university level since 2000. His past titles include analyst, portfolio manager, and director of research. He has worked at public and private buy-side firms that include the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($50 billion in assets) and Members Capital Advisors ($14 billion in institutional and mutual fund assets), a private equity valuation consulting firm Capital Valuation Group, and the sell-side firm International Strategy & Investment Group. This work has included management of the utility portion of several portfolios.
Dr. Spellman is also the director of the Certificate in Investment Management program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a visiting professor at IE Business School (ranked #6 in the world by Financial Times) in Madrid, Spain. Previously, he was the practitioner-director of the Applied Security Analysis Program (ASAP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also taught at Durham University in England. He has taught courses in investments, forensic accounting, CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) review, financial management, the stock market, and behavioral finance.
Dr. Spellman's PhD in behavioral finance is from Durham University, a world class center of financial research. He earned a Masters in Science degree in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994, a Bachelors in Science degree in finance (with a minor in mathematics) from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1992, and has been a CFA Charterholder since 1997.
Dave Hovde
Dave is a Vice President at Pacific Economics Group Research LLC. He has more than fifteen years of experience in the study of energy utility cost and productivity issues. He also teaches courses at Carroll University and Madison College. Before joining PEG, he worked as a Senior Economist at Christensen Associates. He holds a BA in Economics, International Relations, and Political Science, and an MS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Contact Mr. Hovde by e-mail: hovde@earthlink.net
Lullit Getachew
Lullit is a Senior Economist at Pacific Economics Group Research LLC. She is an expert on statistical benchmarking and the measurement of productivity growth. Her Ph.D. in Economics is from Rice University, where she studied with Robin Sickles. Lullit also holds a MALD degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a BA in Economics and International Relations from Mount Holyoke college.
Contact Dr. Getachew by e-mail: lgetachew@earthlink.net
Travis Johnson
Travis is an Economist at Pacific Economics Group Research LLC. He is a PhD candidate at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and heads up our incentive power research program. A Madison native, he holds a BA in mathematics with a minor in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Contact Mr. Johnson by e-mail: travisj@stanford.edu
Santosh Lamichhane
Santosh Lamichhane is an Economist at PEG Research and is pursuing a Masters degree in Energy Policy from the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at UW. A native of Nepal, he holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.