IPPA hosts renowned scholar, Professor John Cobin

Fire safety has been a key concern in many urban areas in Nigeria. While in residence at Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (IPPA), from January through March 2011, Prof. John Cobin will study the effectiveness of building and fire safety regulations in Lagos as well as ways to reduce economic problems associated with them.

The number of fires in the city in the last previous years will be
compared along with the number of pages of building regulation and the number of regulators employed to regulate building safety and quality over the same period.

The study in Nigeria intends to build on previous studies of fire safety regulation in Baltimore, United States, Santiago, Chile and Turin, Italy.

If you would like to meet Prof. John Cobin when he is in Nigeria please email me in order to schedule appointment.

Biography:
Dr. John Cobin, a US citizen, is a financial planner, business consultant, author and professor of economics and public policy.

He received his BA in Business Economics from California State University, Long Beach (1985), his MA in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara (1987), his MA in Economics from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia (1995), and his PhD in Public Policy also from George Mason University (1996).

Dr. Cobin’s research is focused on the interrelation between Christian theology and public policy, evaluating urban public policies such as zoning, building and fire safety regulation, and highway construction, as well as theoretical ways to reduce economic problems associated with them.

He has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses and seminars (part time) in economics and public policy on at the University of Phoenix and LeTourneau University in Texas (online MBA program) along with short courses for various universities or institutes around the world.

Previously he was a manager of a research department in Goleta,
California, as well as a public policy consultant in Cambria, California.

Moreover, he retains his status as Adjunct Professor of Economics at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas (online MBA program), and Visiting Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala.

Dr. Cobin has been a radio guest on many occasions to discuss his work. His weekly column is published in The Times Examiner and Free Market News among other places. He has published several books including Building Regulation, Market Alternatives, and Allodial Policy, London: Avebury, 1997, A Primer on Modern Themes in Free Market Economics and Policy (Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers, 2009) covering public choice, Austrian economics, law and economics, and public policy themes.

He has also written Bible and Government: Public Policy from a Christian Perspective and Pro-Life Policy: A Perspective for Liberty and Human Rights (both with Alertness Books, 2003). His most current book is Christian Theology of Public Policy: Highlighting the American Experience (Alertness Books 2006).