Supply chain resilience in the era of climate change
Climate risk is everywhere — from flood, fire, and wind to migrating labor and depleted raw materials. MIT experts, including Chris Knittel, talk about what to do now to harden your supply chain.
MIT Study Highlights Benefits of a Two-way Exchange of Electricity Between the U.S. Northeast and Quebec as Region Decarbonizes
States in the Northeastern U.S. can transition to low-carbon electricity at a lower cost by using hydropower reservoirs in Quebec for energy storage according to a new CEEPR Working Paper.
Designing Effective Auctions for Renewable Energy Support
Governments use procurement auctions for renewable energy support to stimulate investment in renewable energy. This Working Paper assesses the effect of prevalent auction design elements on effectiveness, using a unique dataset with results of auctions for renewable energy support from 1990 to 2017.
Using Machine Learning to Target Treatment: The Case of Household Energy Use
In this Working Paper, the researchers use causal forests to evaluate the heterogeneous treatment effects (TEs) of repeated behavioral nudges towards household energy conservation and find suggestive evidence of a “boomerang effect”: households with lower consumption than similar neighbors are the ones with positive TE estimates.
Social Comparison and Energy Conservation in a Collective Action Context
In this CEEPR Working Paper, the authors report results from a social comparison feedback experiment incentivizing a reduction of indoor temperatures during the heating season. Despite the fact that most study participants did not face direct financial benefits from lowering heating energy consumption, the results show a statistically significant treatment effect of -0.54°F (-1.2%).
Machine Learning for Solar Accessibility: Implications for Low-Income Solar Expansion and Profitability
The US solar industry typically uses a standard credit score as a factor in approving customers for new installations. The authors of this paper compare machine learning and econometric models to predict the probability of default to credit-score cutoffs.
In The News
Feb 3, 2020
MIT CEEPR Ranked Among the World's Top Ten Energy and Resource Policy Think Tanks
For the eighth year in a row, MIT CEEPR has been ranked among the top ten energy policy think tanks in the world, according to the annual “Global Go To Think Tank Index Report."
Jan 15, 2020
Carbon Price, Competitive Supply, and Consumer Protection
On January 14, 2020, Professor Christopher Knittel testified before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy at the Massachusetts State House. Read his full statement here.
Jan 15, 2020
Zeroing in on decarbonization
To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the world’s electric energy systems must stop producing carbon by 2050. “My work has shown me that we do have the means to tackle the problem..."
Nov 14, 2019
Driving Behavior and the Price of Gasoline: Evidence from Fueling-Level Micro Data
In this CEEPR Working Paper, Professor Christopher Knittel and Professor Shinsuke Tanaka use novel microdata on on-road fuel consumption and prices paid for fuel to estimate short-run elasticities...
Oct 28, 2019
Five reasons climate change is the worst environmental problem the world has ever faced
In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Professor Christopher Knittel lays out five features that combine to make global warming a more vexing environmental crisis than any we have faced before.
Oct 10, 2019
Crackdowns in Hierarchies: Evidence from China’s Environmental Inspections
Professor Valerie Karplus and Mengying Wu investigate how firms respond to crackdowns on public policy enforcement by linking the timing of centralized dispatch of environmental inspectors to cities...
Oct 1, 2019
Strengths and Weaknesses of Traditional Arrangements for Electricity Supply
Professor Richard Schmalensee provides a broad-brush comparison of performance under traditional arrangements for electricity supply with those that emerged after the world-wide wave of...