Research 

Working Papers

"Investment Responses to Environmental Policies: Carbon Taxes, Subsidies, and Public Investment"

(Job Market Paper)

Abstract: Using a climate-economy model featuring fossil fuel and renewable energy infrastructure owned by both the public and private sector, I compute the economy's optimal transition path to a new long-run equilibrium following a variety of policy shocks. Policy instruments include a $45 per ton carbon tax, a 30% subsidy on renewable energy consumption, and a $1 billion public investment in renewable infrastructure over ten years. While economic welfare is consistent across all policy scenarios analyzed, the responses of private energy investments vary. Private fossil fuel investments only decrease when a carbon tax is implemented, and decrease the most when all three policy instruments are used simultaneously. Private renewable investments increase nearly 4 times as much under a renewable subsidy than under a carbon tax. when public investment policy is implemented, it crowds out some private renewable investment, but this crowding-out effect disappears if another policy is implemented alongside the public investment. These findings highlight the complementary roles different environmental policy tools can play in the energy sector's transition to renewable energy. 

Works in Progress

"Sources of Emission Reductions: Green Technology Shocks vs. Oil Price Shocks"

Abstract: This paper identifies a green technology innovation shock  using patent data on climate-related technologies as a share of total patent applications. Using this measure, together with an oil price shock, energy consumption and emissions data, and macroeconomic data, I estimate a Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) to study how the economy and the environment respond differently to technology and price shocks. Results show that oil shocks are initially stronger, but green technology shocks are much more persistent and, at longer time horizons, explain a larger share of economic variation and variation in carbon emissions. Notably, after both a price shock and a technology shock, carbon emissions and fossil fuel use fall, but return to normal twice as quickly under an oil price shock. These findings could provide some empirical insights when modeling the long-run impacts of carbon pricing and innovation-based climate policies.