About

Dale Whittington is a Manager & Technical Director and Teaching Associate in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy. He is involved with the Mass Spectrometry Center and contributes to medicinal chemistry research. His work includes teaching courses such as MEDCH 541 and engaging in research that spans various aspects of pharmacology and biochemistry. His research interests include DNA-m6A calling, long-read epigenetic and genetic analysis, and the development of fast and accurate DNA methylation calling methods. Whittington has contributed to studies on pharmacokinetics, drug tolerance, and the biochemical effects of pregnancy on amino acid levels, among other topics.

Research topics

• Geography
• Environmental science
• Water resource management
• Socioeconomics
• Environmental planning
• Archaeology
• Medicine
• History
• Economics
• Environmental health
• Environmental engineering

Selected publications

• A Contingent Behavior Approach For Estimating Price Elasticities

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Letter from Former SBCA Presidents and JBCA Editors to OIRA Administrator

  Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The economics of a circular urban water system

  Environmental Research Letters · 2025-06-27

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In many water-scarce locations, cities will need to reduce their freshwater withdrawals in order to adapt to the changing climatic conditions of the Anthropocene, reduce the risks of ‘Day Zeros,’ and reduce the disruption to the global hydrological cycle. This paper shows that it is possible for water utilities to make dramatic reductions in raw water withdrawals without proportionally large increases in system-wide costs. A simulation model is built that characterizes the piped water and wastewater network of an urban water utility in a hypothetical high-income city and the costs at nodes and links of the system. This simulation model is used to estimate the effects of four interventions—leakage reduction, demand reduction, potable reuse, and desalination—on raw water withdrawals and system-wide costs. We illustrate the effects of both individual interventions and policy mixes. Compared to the assumed baseline urban water and sanitation system, policy mixes can reduce raw water withdrawals by 74% with only modest increases in system-wide costs.

  PublisherDOI

• The public’s views on climate policies in seven large global south countries

  UNC Libraries · 2025-08-28

  articleOpen access

  While public attitudes regarding climate change have been widely explored in the global north, survey work is still limited in the global south countries. Here we analysed survey data (n = 8,400) from Chile, Colombia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Vietnam to understand climate knowledge, trusted information sources and policy preferences. Our results indicate that scientists stand out as the most trusted information source in all countries except Vietnam and trust in scientists correlates with increased climate knowledge. Respondents agree with the urgency of the climate change challenge, but prioritizing policies to mitigate climate change substantially declines when policy trade-offs are introduced. There is broad agreement for earmarking carbon tax revenue towards health and education, renewable energy subsidies and clean technology R&D, but little support for deficit reduction or uniform rebates.

  PublisherDOI

• Specifying the Baseline in Benefit–Cost Analysis: Comments on U.S. Draft Circular A4

  Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This article includes my 4 June 2023, comments on the specification of the baseline in Regulatory Impact Analyses that were submitted in response to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) request for comments on its draft revisions to Circular A4, “Regulatory Analysis.” This article also includes supplemental remarks on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ (OIRA’s) Revisions to Circular A4 in Response to Public Comments. In my supplemental remarks, I clarify two regulatory situations that I believe OIRA is trying to address in its baseline guidance. I then make three points. First, I argue that the term “dynamic baseline” is preferred to “analytic baseline” because it better conveys the key point that the baseline is a forecast of future conditions. Second, I believe OIRA’s final baseline guidance still leaves agencies with too much discretion to make their own assumptions about such basic parameters in the construction of a dynamic baseline as population and economic growth, technological innovation, and climate change. Third, I argue that the use of multiple dynamic baselines should be standard practice because it makes the baseline assumptions more transparent and thus to some extent mitigates the risk of bias that can arise from an analyst’s strategic selection of a single baseline.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Contested baselines and transboundary water resources management, with illustrations from the Nile

  2025-08-12

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  The effect of a policy intervention is estimated as the difference between a state of the world without the intervention – the dynamic baseline – and with the intervention. Negotiations on managing transboundary water resources confront three kinds of problems in specifying the dynamic baseline: unexamined baselines, uncertain baselines and contested baselines. This paper focuses on contested baselines. Controversy may arise from different ethical or political assessments of the appropriate choice of the state of the world without the policy intervention. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile highlights the importance of understanding contested baselines involving transboundary water resources.

  PublisherDOI

• Designing a national benefit–cost analysis system

  Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics · 2025-12-17 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract A government can establish a ‘national benefit–cost analysis (BCA) system’ by (1) mandating through either executive or legislative action that BCA be conducted for some designated set of public investments and regulations and (2) creating an institutional structure to support this legal or administrative requirement for the regular, ongoing evaluation of the benefits and costs of new proposed investments and regulations. This paper describes 12 issues that should be considered in the design and establishment of a national BCA analysis system and 4 approaches for combining these 12 design decisions to craft a strategy for establishing a national BCA system. The literature suggests that the results of ‘standalone’ BCAs are not highly valued or used by decision‐makers. This is in part because the quality of BCAs is often poor due to a lack of qualified analysts to conduct BCAs, analysts’ overly optimistic estimates of benefits and underestimates of costs, and analysts’ strategic misrepresentation of results. This paper suggests that a well‐designed national BCA system—assisted by generative AI—may be able to overcome some of the problems associated with ‘standalone’ BCAs.

  PublisherDOI

• Getting ready for the Anthropocene: overcoming obstacles on the development path for municipal water and sanitation services

  Environmental Research Letters · 2025-05-12 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper describes three phases that cities go through for the delivery of municipal water and sanitation services, identifying the main political, technological, socio-institutional, financial, public health forces of disequilibria that push cities along this development path. Data from the Global Water Intelligence and the World Bank’s International Benchmarking Network show that most of the countries with utilities with limited piped water coverage (Phase 1) have an annual GDP per capita less than US$5000. In contrast, most countries with an annual GDP per capita greater than US$10 000 have close to universal piped water coverage (Phase 3). We find no statistically significant relationship between country-level water scarcity and the average water prices charged by utilities in a country. We discuss a comprehensive policy mix with four components that municipal water utilities need to address the growing water deficits as rising demands confront limited supplies: (1) reduction of nonrevenue water, (2) source diversification, (3) reduction of customer water use, and (4) establishment of financial reserves to address climate-related emergencies.

  PublisherDOI

• Corrigendum: The economics of a circular urban water system (2025 <i>Environ. Res. Lett.</i> 20 094024)

  Environmental Research Letters · 2025-11-21

  erratumOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The structure of informal water markets: Insights from spatial monitoring in Lodwar, Kenya

  UNC Libraries · 2025-09-04

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Public water utilities have struggled to keep pace with rapid urbanization, particularly in towns and small to medium-sized cities of low-income regions. Informal water markets have proliferated to fill gaps in piped water coverage and service delivery through a wide range of water vending activities (from private water sources to tanker trucks and handcart operators that distribute water). Despite the prevalence and persistence of water vending, the structure, impacts, and evolution of informal water markets in these settings remain poorly understood, especially the interaction between private vendors and public utilities. We seek to improve our understanding of mobile, distributing vendors (tankers, motorcycles) by advancing high-frequency, spatially explicit monitoring of water vendor transactions in Lodwar, Kenya. We examine both the market and spatial structure of the informal water supply system and then draw inferences about their impacts and evolution. We find that vendors that use motorcycles are not making profits from transporting water. We also identify many linkages between the formal and informal systems. For example, purchases of bulk water by water vendors account for 28% of the public water utility’s revenue. We also find that while most consumers of vended water are located outside of the piped water service area, many households and institutions inside the service area still purchase from private water vendors due to concerns about reliability and quality. These results highlight the complementarities between public utilities and private water vending and the corresponding importance of mapping water vending networks to support planning, policy, and investment and to protect consumers.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Marc Jeuland

  Duke University

  74 shared

• Xun Wu

  University of Hong Kong

  54 shared

• Evan D. Kharasch

  Duke University

  43 shared

• Christine Poulos

  RTI Health Solutions

  36 shared

• Joseph Cook

  31 shared

• Jashvant D. Unadkat

  University of Washington

  26 shared

• Kenneth E. Thummel

  University of Washington

  26 shared

• John D. Clemens

  International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research

  24 shared

Education

• PhD, Business

  University of Texas at Austin

  1980