Edella Schlager

My research focuses on comparative institutional analyses of water laws, policies, property rights, and compacts in the western US. I am particularly interested in the design and performance of polycentric systems of water governance and how well such systems of water governance adapt to changing environmental, legal, and social circumstances. Journals I have published in include Land Economics, Policy Studies Journal, Publius, and the American Journal of Political Science. I am co-author of two books on western water governance, Common Waters, Diverging Streams: Linking Institutions and Water Management in Arizona, California, and Colorado (with William Blomquist and Tanya Heikkila); and Embracing Watershed Politics (with William Blomquist). I am also the lead editor of Navigating Climate Change Policy: The Opportunities of Federalism (with Kirsten Engel and Sally Rider).

My teaching centers on environmental policy and public policy. I teach both undergraduate and graduate survey courses on environmental policy, an undergraduate course on climate change policy; and a PhD seminar on theories of the policy process.