His research covers various aspects of agricultural technology adoption and natural resource use, primarily in developing countries. His work emphasizes the study of inter- and intra-household processes that affect adoption outcomes such as the diffusion of information through social networks and bargaining between spouses, and explores this with the use of both observational and experimental data. He earned his B.S. (with distinction) in biology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2002, his M.S. in agricultural and resource economics from Colorado State University in 2005, and his Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis in 2010.