George E. Goldman
George E. Goldman
George Goldman is an economic analyst for Cooperative Extension at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been with the University for 38 years working on California's natural resources and rural areas being affected by local, regional, statewide and national resource policies, and legislation. His B.S. degree is in Industrial Engineering, New York University, New York, 1956 and his M.S. degree is in Operations Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1959.
He has many years of experience in being able to improve the quality of public discussion (and ultimately, decision) through economic analysis that explains the economic effects of resource use and public policy choices. He has done this by developing and making available an analytic framework that can be adopted and applied to resource use choices as policy issues or resource questions have arisen. Cooperative Extension has been able to provide information and analysis that help promote informed decisions. Equally important is the fact that discussion of the economic models and methods serves to educate the public about the value of a quantitative and analytical approach to public policy choices. Consequently, without this kind of education and analysis, public decision making might well be based on whim and prejudice. Thus, his role is providing research based on knowledge, information, and a systematic framework of analysis.
George is a big user of the IMPLAN system for creating regional input-output models. IMPLAN (IMpact of PLANning) is a system for IBM compatible computers of algorithms and data which allows the user to construct, with no additional data requirements, Leontief input-output models for any county (parish, borough, township), region or state in the United States. There are 521 sectors in the U.S. model, closely corresponding to the sectors in the Department of Commerce input-output model for the United States, and roughly corresponding to 3 or 4 digit level SIC code. The 1994 model for the state of California has 514 of these 528 sectors.
IMPLAN was originally started in the late 1970's by economists in the Fort Collins office of the U.S. Forest Service to meet the economic impact requirements of the Forest Service plans. It was originally on the Forest Service computer in Fort Collins and was accessible only by modem. In the mid-1980s, a version for IBM compatible personal computers was designed. The IMPLAN system was turned over to the University of Minnesota to run and in 1993 IMPLAN was privatized. It is now run by the Minnesota IMPLAN Group (MIG) in Minneapolis and this group is now responsible for the data requirements of the system. MIG has its own WEB page if more information is desired.
George has worked extensively with counties and cities throughout the state on agricultural economics related studies, impact assessments to local governments and projects with the private sector. Examples of problem areas he has worked in are: residential development, tourism, farmland conversion, recreation, water development, coastal legislation, groundwater management, and the economic value of agriculture, as well as the value of individual crops to the local economy. He did the economic impacts of closing Fort Ord on Monterey county, the economic importance of the California State University system to the state of California, and the economics of agriculture in Monterey county and Ventura county.
His clientele groups or organizations include: California Department of Food & Agriculture; California State Resources Acencies (Dept of Parks & Recreation, Dept of Water Resources, Dept of Forestry & Fire Protection, and Dept of Fish & Game.); U.C. Cooperative Extension Counties; California State Universities, etc.
Some recent publications which is in the Giannini Library are: