Economist takes helm of forecast center

(WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – Nov. 14, 2016) Matthew Fienup is the new executive director of the California Lutheran University Center for Economic Research and Forecasting.

Fienup has served as an economist with the center since 2014. The Ventura resident is an expert on the economics of land use, particularly issues surrounding urban growth restriction and groundwater management in Ventura County and California. His research looks at unintended consequences of environmental policies and he looks for market-based solutions to major public policy challenges.

As chairman of the Water Market Group at the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency, Fienup has been working with Ventura County farmers and municipal water providers on a system that would provide an economic incentive for water usage reductions. The group hopes to launch a water market pilot program for buying and selling groundwater in early 2017. 

Fienup has served on the Cal Lutheran faculty since 2014. He teaches courses in econometrics and environmental economics in the Master of Science in Quantitative Economics program.

He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Woodbury University. He earned a master’s degree in economics and is completing the final requirements for a doctorate in environmental economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He wrote his dissertation on the effects of Ventura County’s urban growth restrictions, known collectively as Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR).

Before studying economics, Fienup was a rock-climbing instructor. He founded and ran Earthworks Climbing School in Santa Barbara. He also taught marine biology, comparative ecology and California Natural History to fourth- through eighth-grade students on Catalina Island. An aspiring adventure photographer at one point, he graduated summa cum laude with an associate’s degree in photojournalism from Brooks Institute of Photography.

Fienup replaces Bill Watkins, who has retired from the university. Watkins and CERF’s director of economics Dan Hamilton launched the center in 2009.

Cal Lutheran CERF provides county, state and national forecasts as well as custom economic consulting services for government, business and nonprofit organizations. In September, the National Association for Business Economics awarded second place in its Outlook Award competition to CERF economists for the accuracy of their forecasts. The Economist, CNN Money and Case-Shiller Macro Markets have also included CERF forecasters in their surveys. For more information, go to clucerf.org.