The American Water Works Association (AWWA) named Associate Professor Manny Teodoro the recipient of its 2020 Best Paper Award in the Management & Leadership Division. Teodoro’s paper, Water and sewer affordability in the United States, was published in the March 8, 2019, issue of AWWA Water Science.
The award recognizes authors of outstanding papers from each AWWA Technical and Education Division published in the interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal with research on the science, engineering, and social aspects of water. Teodoro also received the award in 2019 and 2017 (with David Switzer and Stuart Karasik).
Teodoro’s research found that low-income households must spend an average of 9.7 percent of their disposable income and/or work 9.5 hours at minimum wage to pay for basic monthly water and sewer service. These values vary considerably across the country, with region, utility size, and local income inequality as strong correlates of affordability. Several local governments across the country are using the methodology and findings developed in the paper.
Teodoro, who joined the La Follette School faculty in August 2020, works at the intersection of politics, public policy, and public management. His research focuses mainly on U.S. environmental policy and implementation, including empirical analyses of environmental justice.