Benjamin Leard
Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee
Working Papers
New Passenger Vehicle Demand Elasticites: Estimates and Policy Implications (with Yidi Wu) 2023 RFF Working Paper 23-33
How Much Do Consumers Value Fuel Cost Savings? Evidence from Passenger Vehicle Leasing (with Kevin Ankney) 2023 RFF Working Paper 21-27
Vehicle Attribute Tradeoffs and the Distributional Effects of US Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards (with Joshua Linn and Katalin Springel) 2023 RFF Working Paper RFF Blog Post
Statistical Estimation of Trends in Scrappage and Survival of U.S. Light-duty Vehicles (with David Greene), 2023 Baker Center Report
Should Electric Vehicle Purchase Subsidies be Linked with Scrappage Requirements? (with Kevin Ankney) 2022 RFF Working Paper 22-13
Refereed Publications
Coordinating the electric vehicle transition and electricity grid decarbonization in the U.S. is not essential to achieving long-term carbon dioxide emissions reductions (with David Greene), Environmental Research Letters, 2023, 18, 1-11.
Firms and Collective Reputation: a Study of the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal (with Rüdiger Bachmann, Gabriel Ehrlich, Ying Fan, and Dimitrije Ruzic), Journal of the European Economic Association, 2023, 21-2. Working paper
How Much Do Consumers Value Fuel Economy and Performance? Evidence from Technology Adoption (with Joshua Linn and Christy Zhou), The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2023, 105-1 RFF Working Paper RFF Resources Article RFF Blog Post
Estimating Consumer Substitution Between New and Used Passenger Vehicles, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2022, 9-1: 27-49. RFF Working Paper
Interpreting Tradable Credit Prices in Overlapping Vehicle Regulations (with Virginia McConnell), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2021, 109: 1-8. RFF Working Paper
What Does an Electric Vehicle Replace? (with Jianwei Xing and Shanjun Li), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2021, 107: 1-33. NBER Working Paper RFF Working Paper RFF Resources Article NBER Digest
Pushing New Technology into the Market: California’s Evolving Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate (with Virginia McConnell), Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2021, 15(1): 169-179. RFF Working Paper RFF Blog Post A longer version is available as an RFF working paper: California’s evolving zero emission vehicle program: Pulling new technology into the market (with Virginia McConnell and Fred Kardos) 2019 RFF Working Paper 19-51
The Effect of Fuel Price Changes on Fleet Demand for New Vehicle Fuel Economy (with Virginia McConnell and Christy Zhou), Journal of Industrial Economics, 2019, 67(1): 127-159. RFF Working Paper RFF Resources Article
Explaining the Evolution of Vehicle Miles Traveled in the United States (with Joshua Linn and Clayton Munnings), Energy Journal, 2019, 40(1): 25-54. RFF Working Paper
Voluntary Exposure Benefits and the Costs of Climate Change (with Kevin Roth), Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2019, 6(1): 151-185. RFF Working Paper RFF Resources Article
Flawed Analyses of U.S. Auto Fuel Economy Standards (with Antonio M. Bento, Kenneth Gillingham, Mark R. Jacobsen, Christopher R. Knittel, Joshua Linn, Virginia McConnell, David Rapson, James M. Sallee, Arthur A. van Benthem, and Kate S. Whitefoot), Science, 2018, 362(6419): 1119-1121. Supplementary Materials
Consumer Inattention and the Demand for Vehicle Fuel Cost Savings, Journal of Choice Modeling, 2018, 29: 1-16. RFF Working Paper
How Do Low Gas Prices Affect Costs and Benefits of US New Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards? (with Joshua Linn and Virginia McConnell), Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, 2018, 7(2). RFF Policy Brief
New Markets for Credit Trading Under U.S. Automobile Greenhouse Gas and Fuel Economy Standards (with Virginia McConnell), Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2017, 11(2): 207-226. RFF Report RFF Resources Article RFF Blog Post
Fuel Prices, New Vehicle Fuel Economy, and Implications for Attribute-Based Standards (with Joshua Linn and Virginia McConnell), Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2017, 4(3): 659-700. RFF Working Paper RFF Blog Post
Are Consumers Willing to Pay to Let Cars Drive for Them? Analyzing Response to Autonomous Vehicles (with Ricardo Daziano and Mauricio Sarrias), Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 2017, 78: 150-164. RFF Working Paper RFF Resources Article RFF Podcast NBER Presentation Slides
On the Importance of Baseline Setting in Carbon Offsets Markets (with Antonio Bento and Ravi Kanbur), Climatic Change, 2016, 137(3): 625-637. RFF Working Paper. This publication is based on a prior paper titled "Super-Additionality: A Neglected Force in Markets for Carbon Offsets" with an associated Dyson School Working Paper.
Designing Efficient Markets for Carbon Offsets with Distributional Constraints (with Antonio Bento and Ravi Kanbur), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2015, 70(2): 51-71.
The Welfare Effects of Allowance Banking in Emissions Trading Programs, Environmental and Resource Economics, 2013, 55(2): 175-197.
Equivalencies in the Fishery (with Jon Conrad), Natural Resource Modeling, 2013, 26(2): 154-163.
Earlier Publications in Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Variations in Home Advantage: Evidence from the National Hockey League (with Joanne Doyle), Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 2012, 8(2): 1-27.
The Effect of Home Advantage, Momentum, and Fighting on Winning in the National Hockey League, (with Joanne Doyle) Journal of Sports Economics, 2011, 12(5): 538-560.
Analysis of Predator–Prey Models with Continuous Threshold Harvesting (with Jorge Rebaza), Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2011, 217(12): 5265-5278.
An Optimal Strategy for Energy Allocation in a Multiple Resource Environment (with D. Brian Walton and Anthony Tongen), Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 2010, 72: 1092-1123.
Dynamics of Ratio-Dependent Predator-Prey Models with Nonconstant Harvesting (with Catherine Lewis and Jorge Rebaza) Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems-S, 2008, 1(2): 303-315.
Other Publications
Federal Climate Policy 104: The Transportation Sector, 2021 RFF Explainer
Progress and Potential for Electric Vehicles to Reduce Carbon Emissions (with Virginia McConnell), 2020 RFF Report 20-16
Carbon Pricing 202: Pricing Carbon in the Transportation Sector (with Joshua Linn and Kathryne Cleary), 2020 RFF Explainer
What Does Ridesharing Replace? (with Jianwei Xing), 2020 RFF Working Paper 20-03
Targeting Subsidies to Get More Electric Vehicles on the Road. RFF Resources Magazine Issue 202, Fall 2019
Fuelling Behaviour Change, Nature Energy News & Views, 2018, 3: 541-542.
Comments to NHTSA and US EPA on the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021-2026: Passenger Cars and Light Trucks (with Joshua Linn, Alan J. Krupnick, and Virginia McConnell) Public Comments, October 2018
Fleet Vehicles and Fuel Economy: How Do Fuel Prices Affect Vehicle Purchase Decisions for Big Buyers? (with Virginia McConnell and Christy Zhou) RFF Resources Magazine Issue 197, Spring 2018
The Benefits of Flexible Policy Design: US Energy Conservation Standards for Appliances (with Josh Blonz and Karen Palmer) RFF Resources Magazine Issue 197, Spring 2018
Comments on the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Request for Information on Energy Conservation Standards Program Design (with Josh Blonz and Karen Palmer) RFF Report, February 2018
The Effect of Standards for New Vehicle Fuel Economy and GHG Emissions on US Consumers (with Joshua Linn and Christy Zhou) RFF Resources Magazine Issue 195, Fall 2017
The Net Emissions Impact of HFC-23 Offset Projects from the Clean Development Mechanism (with Clayton Munnings and Antonio Bento) 2016 RFF Discussion Paper 16-01
Fuel Prices, Economic Activity, and the Rebound Effect for Heavy-Duty Trucks (with Joshua Linn, Virginia McConnell and William Raich) 2016 RFF Discussion Paper 15-43 REV
How Climate Change Affects Traffic Accidents (with Kevin Roth) RFF Resources Magazine Issue 191, Winter 2016
Comments on Midterm Evaluation Draft Technical Assessment Report for Model Year 2022-2025 Light Duty Vehicle GHG Emissions and CAFE Standards (with Joshua Linn, Virginia McConnell and Kenneth Gillingham) RFF Report, September 2016
Do Low Oil Prices Undermine US Passenger Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards? (with Joshua Linn and Virginia McConnell) RFF Policy Brief, July 2016, No. 16-08
Comment on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy- Duty Engines and Vehicles; Phase 2. NHTSA-2014-0132-0109. The Potential for Improvement in On-road Truck Fuel Economy: Evidence from the VIUS (with Jen He and Virginia McConnell)