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Publications

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Enabling Net-Zero Shipping An Expert Review-Based Agenda for Emerging Techno-Economic and Policy Research

Enabling Net-Zero Shipping An Expert Review-Based Agenda for Emerging Techno-Economic and Policy Research

Net-zero shipping is emerging as a global priority, underscored by the shipping sector’s increasing projected contribution to climate change, making it critical to understand the emerging associated research priorities. We outline key techno-economic and policy research priorities for achieving effective and equitable net-zero shipping. We translate contemporary media issues to techno-economic and policy research priorities, corroborating the identified priorities through the academic literature, and consulting an array of maritime experts in the fields of policy, technology, fuel, and infrastructure.

14th October 2024
Are Households Quitting Electric Vehicle Ownership?

Are Households Quitting Electric Vehicle Ownership?

In this paper, we investigate the proportion of U.S. plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners who discontinued PEV ownership by disposing of their PEV and buying a non-PEV as their next vehicle, which is termed PEV “discontinuance.”

3rd September 2024
Emerging Policy and Economic Research Priorities for Enabling the Electric Vehicle Sector

Emerging Policy and Economic Research Priorities for Enabling the Electric Vehicle Sector

We highlight key emerging research priorities on the climate- and industrial-policy driven pathway to passenger car electrification, including both pure battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, using a three-pronged approach. This includes examining journalistic reports from a research perspective, corroborating the determined research priorities with recent literature, and consulting a diverse group of experts in the policy, technology, fuel, and infrastructure fields.

1st September 2024
How Responsive Are New Car Buyers in India and China to Factors Driving Fuel Consumption?

How Responsive Are New Car Buyers in India and China to Factors Driving Fuel Consumption?

China and India, the world’s two most populous developing economies, are also among the largest automotive markets and carbon emitters. To reduce carbon emissions from the passenger car sector, both countries have considered various policy levers that affect fuel price, car prices and fuel economy. This study estimates the responsiveness of new car buyers in China and India to such policy levers and drivers, including income.  

9th April 2023
Are Consumers Myopic About Future Fuel Costs? Insights from the Indian two-wheeler market

Are Consumers Myopic About Future Fuel Costs? Insights from the Indian two-wheeler market

India has the world’s third highest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, after China and the United States. The transportation sector is the third largest contributor to carbon dioxide emissions in India, accounting for roughly 11% of all carbon dioxide emissions in 2016. Road transport accounts for around 94% of the total carbon dioxide emissions of the transportation sector.

24th August 2021
Eliciting Preferences of Ride-Hailing Users and Drivers

Eliciting Preferences of Ride-Hailing Users and Drivers

The ‘ride-hailing’ services offered by transportation network companies (TNCs) such as Uber and Lyft have rapidly disrupted personal transportation, particularly in cities. Schaller (2018) reports that TNCs provided 2.6 billion rides in 2017 in the United States (U.S.), a 37% increase from 2016. The rapid increase in the adoption of TNC services can be attributed to the ease of access offered by smartphone applications and the higher availability of cars and drivers compared to regulated, traditional taxi services. 

24th February 2020
Estimating Car Price Elasticity Using an Inverse Product Differentiation Logit Model

Estimating Car Price Elasticity Using an Inverse Product Differentiation Logit Model

Since the seminal work of Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes (1995), random coefficient logit (RCL) has become the workhorse model for estimating demand elasticities in markets with differentiated products using aggregated sales data. While the ability to represent flexible substitution patterns makes RCL a preferable model, its estimation is computationally challenging due to the numerical inversion of the demand function. The recently proposed inverse product differentiation logit (IPDL) addresses these computational challenges by directly specifying the inverse demand function and representing flexible substitution patterns through nonhierarchical product segmentation in multiple dimensions. Unlike the two-stage simulation-based estimation of RCL, IPDL requires the estimation of a traditional linear instrumental variable (IV) regression model. In theory, IPDL appears to be an attractive alternative to RCL, but its potential has not yet been explored in empirical studies. We present the first application of IPDL in understanding the demand for passenger cars in China using provincial-level sales data. Our results indicate that the elasticity estimates of IPDL and RCL are not significantly different, i.e., that IPDL can capture substitution patterns in a similar manner as can RCL. The estimation of IPDL takes less than a second on a regular computer (i.e., it is approximately 500 times faster than RCL). Overall, the flexibility and computational efficiency of IPDL makes it a workhorse model for demand estimation using market-level aggregated sales data.

26th December 2023
Identifying Emerging Challenges and Priorities for Aviation Decarbonization

Identifying Emerging Challenges and Priorities for Aviation Decarbonization

Decarbonization of the aviation sector has emerged as a global concern because the sector contributes 2%-3% to total global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, it is critical for us to understand the associated emerging challenges. We determine key research priorities for achieving effective and equitable net-zero aviation by examining journalistic reports from a research perspective. Furthermore, we adopt this approach because journalistic reports frequently shed light on emerging energy economics, policy and sustainability issues before they are thoroughly examined in the scholarly literature. Specifically, we first derive overarching themes by summarizing and categorizing the wide-ranging scope of recent media investigations of aviation decarbonization.

18th March 2024
Is the Recent Price Spike in Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Battery Packs Temporary or the Start of a New Trend?

Is the Recent Price Spike in Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Battery Packs Temporary or the Start of a New Trend?

Most nations are evaluating vehicle electrification as a way to decarbonize their passenger car sectors. To make electric vehicles competitive with conventional vehicles for cost-conscious consumers, the upfront purchase price of electric vehicles needs to fall. The battery pack is the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, accounting for about 30% of the total cost to consumers.

5th March 2023
Bans on the Sale of Gasoline- And Diesel-Powered Vehicles: Why Are Policymakers Favoring Commandand- Control to the Point of Banning, and Does It Send Unintended Policy Signals?

Bans on the Sale of Gasoline- And Diesel-Powered Vehicles: Why Are Policymakers Favoring Commandand- Control to the Point of Banning, and Does It Send Unintended Policy Signals?

In recent years, the adoption of command-and-control policies, from mandating sales of zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles all the way to prohibiting future sales of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles via tailpipe carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions standards or otherwise, has gained momentum globally in the new light-duty vehicle sector. This includes the zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate in California (CARB 2017), which was later adopted by other ZEV states in the United States, the new energy vehicle mandate in China (ICCT 2018), and the recently enacted laws in the European Union (Council of the European Union 2022) and California (CARB 2022) that effectively ban the sale of new gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles after 2035.

15th February 2023
Once Consumers Adopt an Electric Vehicle, Do They Go Back?

Once Consumers Adopt an Electric Vehicle, Do They Go Back?

The lack of repeat adoption of low carbon technologies has implications for climate change mitigation. In this insight, we explore how many electric vehicle owners dispose of their electric vehicles and do not buy another when purchasing their next car. We also investigate their reasons for discontinuing their electric vehicle ownership. We highlight the policy implications of these findings, comparing policies aimed at promoting adoption vis-à-vis sustaining adoption.

29th June 2021
Understanding the Impact of Ride-Hailing Services on Travel Behavior

Understanding the Impact of Ride-Hailing Services on Travel Behavior

Major transformations are taking place in the road transportation sector, particularly in passenger auto travel. The arrival of transportation network companies (TNCs), including Uber, Didi Chuxing, Ola, Lyft and others, has the potential to critically alter key aspects of passenger auto travel behavior such as vehicle ownership, miles traveled, the uptake of alternative fuel vehicles and the use of mass transit.

26th December 2019

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