Paul Stroik

" What are we striving for if not a ‘better’ tomorrow?  A future with fewer of our current problems, and one where lesser problems may fill their place.  This goal cannot be achieved through unsustainable practices, for such practices in their nature will be of least cost.  Once the resources that made unsustainable practices possible are exhausted, the practice must be altered or supported by a new, higher cost resource.  A sustainable solution to any unsustainable practice is harder to manage in the short run, but it comes with one major advantage – an increase in the probability of a future with lesser problems than we experience today."

Paul Stroik is interested in the effectiveness of environmental regulation on varying economic sectors, primarily those directly regulated, as their respective market structures likely differ from one another, resulting in theoretically different outcomes in market efficiency from varying environmental regulation. Paul’s current research asks what happens to the cost of provision of natural gas, along with the market power of natural gas providers, when the free market is allowed to provide the residential sale of natural gas, instead of a regulated natural monopoly.