Benjamin Leard
Fellow, Resources for the Future
Working Papers
How Much Do Consumers Value Fuel Economy and Performance? Evidence from Technology Adoption (with Joshua Linn and Christy Zhou) 2017 RFF Report, 2nd round revisions requested from Review of Economics and Statistics RFF Resources Article RFF Blog Post TE3 Presentation
What Does an Electric Vehicle Replace? (with Jianwei Xing and Shanjun Li) 2019 NBER Working Paper No. 25771 RFF Working Paper RFF Resources Article TE3 Presentation NBER Digest
Estimating Consumer Substitution Between New and Used Passenger Vehicles 2019 RFF Working Paper 19-01 RFF Blog Post
Pass-Through and Welfare Effects of Regulations that Affect Product Attributes (with Joshua Linn and Katalin Springel) 2019 RFF Working Paper 19-07 RFF Blog Post
California’s Evolving Zero Emission Vehicle Program: Pulling New Technology into the Market (with Virginia McConnell and Fred Kardos) 2019 RFF Working Paper 19-22 RFF Blog Post
Have US Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards Improved Social Welfare? (with Joshua Linn and Katalin Springel) 2020 RFF Working Paper 20-6 RFF Blog Post
Interpreting Tradable Credit Prices in Overlapping Vehicle Regulations (with Virginia McConnell) 2020 RFF Working Paper 20-07
Published Papers
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 TE3 Presentation
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
Fuelling Behaviour Change, Nature Energy News & Views, 2018, 3: 541-542.
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
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.
Awarded Research Funding
2020-2021: Sloan Foundation, Energy Foundation, Merck Family Fund
2019: United States Climate Alliance, Georgetown Climate Center, Bloomberg
2017-2019: Sloan Foundation
2015-2016: Resources for the Future