Energy Economics and Finance Seminar
Speaker
Virtual event
Event Summary
The seminar series in Energy Economics & Finance (EEF) is jointly organized by Wharton’s Business Economics and Public Policy Department, the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, and Wharton’s Business, Climate and Environment Lab. The scope of the seminar includes regulation and policy papers. The scope of the seminar also includes environmental and transportation issues, as long as there is a connection with energy. Sessions are biweekly on Mondays from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
For Fall 2021, the seminar will be a combination of in-person and virtual talks. In-person talks will be held at JMHH G90 while virtual ones will meet via Zoom. Meeting links and passcodes for virtual talks are required in order to join and will be included in the emailed meeting announcement prior to each session.
Find and add a Google Calendar version of the schedule on the BEPP seminar page.
To sign up for the seminar, please send your name, email, and affiliation to Dhivya Kaushik: dhivya@wharton.upenn.edu
Talk title: What Matters for Electrification? Evidence from 70 Years of U.S. Home Heating Choices
Abstract: The percentage of U.S. homes heated with electricity has increased steadily from 1% in 1950, to 8% in 1970, to 26% in 1990, to 39% in 2018. This paper investigates the key determinants of this increase in electrification using data on heating choices from millions of U.S. households over a 70-year period. Energy prices, geography, climate, housing characteristics, and household income are shown to collectively explain 90% of the increase, with changing energy prices by far the most important single factor. This framework is then used to calculate the economic cost of an electrification mandate for new homes. Households in warm states tend to prefer electricity anyway, so would be made worse off by less than $300 annually on average. Households in cold states, however, tend to strongly prefer natural gas so would be made worse off by $1000+ annually. These findings are directly relevant to a growing number of policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions through electrification, and underscore the importance of pricing energy efficiently.
Lucas Davis
Fall 2021 Seminar Schedule
- 9/27: Ishan Nath, Princeton University
- 10/11: Tihitina Andarge, UMass-Amherst
- 10/18: Lucas Davis, UC-Berkeley
- 10/25: Francisco Costa, University of Delaware
- 11/8: Paige Weber, UNC-Chapel Hill
- 11/15: Sam Stolper, University of Michigan