039: David Zetland on Aguanomics, Water Scarcity, Water Wars and ‘Toilet-to-Tap’ - a podcast by Frank Conway - Economics and Finance Lecturer - interviews Dan Ariely, Deir

David Zetland is an assistant professor at Leiden University College, where he teaches various classes on economics.

David was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Natural Resource Economics and Political Economy at UC Berkeley (2008-2010) and a Senior Water Economist at Wageningen University (2011-2013). 

David blogs on water, economics and politics at aguanomics.com and gives many talks to public, professional and academic audiences.

David has two books The End of Abundance: economic solutions to water scarcity (2011)  and Living with Water Scarcity (2014).

He received his PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Davis in 2008.

Find out:

• if we should be worried more about a shortage of water or a scarcity of water.

• if we should learn from the oil industry and develop the technology-equivalent of extracting oil from oil sands and desalinate the ocean water?

• if we can tell whether we know the water footprint of a cow and if it’s different in California than Ireland.

• why water is actually free and what you pay is for the delivery.

• if there is an opportunity costs to acquiring water?

• why people living in the slums of India pay up to 50 times the price for water than those who have cheaper piped water.

• if a water monopoly is an effective market structure.

• if price competition in the market for water would result in the over-use of water consumption.

• about the water-diamond paradox.

• why David decided to do a PhD in economics after failing to get rich in the dotcom era.

• how David came to get his family name ‘Zetland’.

• about the coming ‘Water Wars’ and how it has already started.

• about Sao Paulo’s troubled water situation and how it’s creating water gang warfare on the streets.

• who we should assign the property rights to water.

• what David proposes to be the most effective way of managing water.

• how Singapore are becoming independent in creating their supply of water and are no longer depending on imports fro Malaysia.

• how Singapore are building technologies to recycle water from waste.

• why the ‘toilet-to-tap’ water recycling initiative has failed in the US but is working in Singapore.

• and much much more.

• Check out the shownotes page at www.economicrockstar.com/davidzetland

• Subscribe on iTunes and never miss an episode.

Further episodes of Economic Rockstar

Further podcasts by Frank Conway - Economics and Finance Lecturer - interviews Dan Ariely, Deir

Website of Frank Conway - Economics and Finance Lecturer - interviews Dan Ariely, Deir