In the electricity sector, innovation in large-scale storage is anticipated to reduce costs and improve performance. The effect on greenhouse gas emissions of lower storage costs depends on the interactions between storage and the entire grid. The literature has disagreed on the role of storage...

Allocating inspection resources over a diverse set of imports to prevent entry of plant pests and pathogens presents a substantial policy design challenge. We model inspections of live plant imports and producer responses to inspections using a “state-dependent” monitoring and enforcement...

A leading approach to understanding significant discrepancies between observed willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) in policy evaluation is the “endowment effect” — that preferences are based on a reference point or anchor that leads WTA to exceed WTP. Unlike assertions...

We analyze the relative price elasticity of unconventional versus conventional natural gasextraction. We separately analyze three key stages of gas production: drilling wells, completing wells, and producing natural gas from the completed wells. We find that the important margin is drilling...

Approximately one billion people live without access to electricity. However, there has been no study that rigorously estimates both the realized benefits and costs of electricity provision. In this paper, we document substantial short-run welfare gains from electricity expansion in the...

We seek to estimate the effects of breastfeeding on the present value of future earnings increases resulting from IQ increases. Using new estimates of the effect of cognitive performance on lifetime earnings in the United States, based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, developed by...

Environmentalism in the United States historically has been divided into its utilitarian and preservationist impulses, represented by Gifford Pinchot and John Muir, respectively. Pinchot advocated conservation of natural resources to be used for human purposes; Muir advocated protection from...

Although economic theory suggests that market size and fuel costs affect fuel-saving technology adoption by vehicle manufacturers, there is very little empirical evidence. We document a strong connection between market size, as measured by a vehicle's sales, and technology adoption. Using a...

This paper presents empirical evidence that measures of community environmentalism based on donations to the Green Party are predictive of the demand for green products and policies at the zip code and county levels in the United States. The primary measure of community environmentalism in the...