Project

Energy in the Global Economy: History and Future

Fossil Fuels, Markets & Finance

Part 1 of the project asks: What can we learn from the history of energy about how transitions from one source of energy to another have occurred? How have they transformed the economies of the world? What can history teach us about how to efficiently implement those transformations? Part 2 of the project asks: What can we think, formally and quantitatively, about the new world of the oil industry after the tight and shale gas revolution? What can we expect regarding the evolution of oil production, its price, and its volatility over the next decade?

Grant Result

The current energy transition is fraught with economic and social implications, not to mention abundant political squabbles. An economist looks at the past 200 years of global energy history and finds that difficult transitions are nothing new.

Listen to the Podcast

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde

Professor of Economics

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde is a professor of economics and research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Penn’s Population Studies Center, and a Research Affiliate for the Centre for Economic Policy Research.