Publications – Working Papers
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Are Passenger Vehicles Positional Goods?
Consumer Welfare Implications of More Stringent CAFE Standards
Are Passenger Vehicles Positional Goods? examines to what degree vehicles generate consumption externalities that are not currently corrected for by the market, and whether a
uniform downward shift in the size of the passenger vehicle fleet will actually result in reduced consumer welfare. -
The Rebound Effect in a More Fuel Efficient Transportation Sector
Vehicle fuel efficiency improvements through Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, may lead owners of more fuel-efficient cars may be driving more as their fuel cost per mile travelled decreases. It’s called the “rebound effect” and it has significant policy implications.
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The Energy Paradox and the Future of Fuel Economy Regulation
Are the benefits of raising the fuel efficiency of America’s auto fleet greater than the costs? The answer may depend on whether or not there is an energy paradox.
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Patience is a(n Economic) Virtue
Real Options, Natural Resources, and Offshore Oil
Consideration of real options is necessary to maximize economic return from non-renewable natural resource extraction. But ecisions over drilling are often framed as a now-or-never choice, so the option to wait (or “real option” value) is improperly treated in administrative processes that determine whether, when, and how offshore oil resources will be tapped.
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Does Process Matter
Regulatory Procedure and Regulatory Output in the States
Rulemaking in the states has become much more widespread than it was when many state legislatures began to pass their administrative procedures acts more than 40 years ago. A wide diversity of rulemaking procedures presents a natural laboratory in which to study several questions that have long interested scholars of the regulatory process. This paper finds that the level of rulemaking is more closely correlated to the lawmaking activity in the state rather than proceduralization which suggests no disrespect for the law, as Churchill argued, but rather that the lawmakers themselves have given rise to the thousands of regulations in the states.