About

Michael Anderson is a Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He serves as a faculty member and graduate advisor within the department. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Economics with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College. His research interests encompass environmental economics, health economics, and applied econometrics, with a particular focus on questions of causal inference. He is involved in teaching, research, and advising activities within the department, contributing to the academic community through his expertise in these areas.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Immunology
• Economics
• Transport engineering
• Econometrics
• Environmental health
• Demography
• Internal medicine
• Mathematics
• Engineering
• Pediatrics
• Operations research
• Medicine
• Geography
• Statistics

Selected publications

• Replication package for: "Bounds, Benefits, and Bad Air: Net Benefits of Pollution Alerts"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-04-21

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Anderson, Michael L., Minwoo Hyun, and Jaecheol Lee. 2026. "Bounds, Benefits, and Bad Air: Net Benefits of Pollution Alerts." Economic Journal.

  PublisherDOI

• Bounds, Benefits, and Bad Air: Net Benefits of Pollution Alerts

  The Economic Journal · 2026-05-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Though air-quality alert systems (AQAS) cover more than 1.7 billion people worldwide, there has been little analysis of the net benefits of these systems. This paper presents a theoretical framework for deriving lower bounds on the net benefits of an AQAS and applies it to a South Korean system currently covering over 51 million people. Estimating a regression discontinuity design, we find that an alert issuance reduced youth respiratory expenditures by 30% and adult cardiovascular expenditures by 23%. The overall system reduced externalised health expenditures by 28.6 million dollars during 2016−2017, with a minimum benefit-cost ratio of 7.1:1. Including dynamic impacts of alerts increases the minimum benefits (benefit-cost ratio) to 36.7 million dollars (9.2:1). Our findings imply that the AQAS generates significant net benefits and suggests that manipulation of air quality data, which has been observed in other contexts, may negatively impact social net benefits.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication package for: "Bounds, Benefits, and Bad Air: Net Benefits of Pollution Alerts"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-04-21

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Anderson, Michael L., Minwoo Hyun, and Jaecheol Lee. 2026. "Bounds, Benefits, and Bad Air: Net Benefits of Pollution Alerts." Economic Journal.

  PublisherDOI

• Seronegative herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis causing temporal lobe epilepsy resulting in new-onset psychosis: a case report and literature review

  AME Case Reports · 2024-09-11 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis is the most common nonepidemic encephalitis and can result in temporal lobe necrosis. Inflammation of the temporal lobe can result in temporal lobe epilepsy which is known to cause psychiatric symptoms. Case Description: We describe the case of a geriatric male patient who was admitted for new-onset visual hallucinations and other neuropsychiatric symptoms which began five days prior to admission. His lab work was unremarkable, and a computed tomography (CT) scan of the brain demonstrated small vessel ischemic disease. There was clinical suspicion for seizures, and electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring showed focal seizure activity in the right hemisphere. He received a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which was suspicious for encephalitis. Various etiologies were considered, and he received an extensive workup including cerebrospinal fluid evaluation. Ultimately, he improved with empiric antiviral treatment added alongside multiple antiepileptic agents. The seizure control and resolution of symptoms with antiviral treatment, in addition to the findings of his central nervous system (CNS) workup, confirmed the presumptive diagnosis of HSV encephalitis. Conclusions: Understanding the multifactorial causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms is important in determining an appropriate workup. The acute onset of specific symptoms in our patient increased suspicion for a structural neurological process. His initial presentation could largely be explained by the vascular dementia and epileptiform activity that were discovered during hospitalization. However, his refractory seizures were suggestive of another underlying etiology. The localization of his seizures and MRI findings were suggestive of HSV encephalitis despite negative HSV polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A patient may benefit from antiviral treatment when the clinical picture is consistent with HSV encephalitis even in the setting of negative serological studies. Clinicians should also be mindful of false negatives on serological tests.

  PublisherDOI

• Does telecommuting reduce trip-making? Evidence from a U.S. panel during the COVID-19 pandemic

  Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice · 2024-01-18 · 23 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Early Pandemic Behaviors and the Role of Vaccines in Reversing Pandemic Mobility Trends: Evidence from a U.S. Panel

  Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board · 2024-06-07 · 2 citations

  article

  The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel behavior and resulted in the emergence of new mobility trends. In this paper, we study the degree to which vaccines played a role in reversing pandemic-induced travel behaviors and contributed to a “return to normal.” Using five waves of original U.S.-based survey data combined with passive smartphone tracking data collected in 2020 and 2021, we show that in the early phases of the pandemic, the behavioral response of people in the United States was heterogeneous: individuals with low levels of concern about being infected with COVID-19 engaged in riskier behaviors than those with higher levels of concern, such as traveling more, eschewing masks, attending large gatherings, and using public transportation. Vaccine availability in early 2021 played a significant role in reducing those concerns, which in turn was reflected in significantly increased mobility and travel frequency. We also found a strong positive association between getting vaccinated and the frequency of using public transportation. Telecommuting and working from home remained high after vaccine availability, but we found that the fraction of full-time employees that worked from home every day significantly dropped. This reduction in fully remote work was no different among vaccinated and unvaccinated people, which suggests that the decision to return to in-person work was not only driven by employees’ safety concerns and preferences, but was also a function of employers’ expectations and their decision to reopen their offices. We discuss the implications of our findings on understanding travel behavior during pandemic impact- and recovery periods.

  PublisherDOI

• Reviews of "Causal Evidence that Herpes Zoster Vaccination Prevents a Proportion of Dementia Cases"

  2023-06-28

  peer-reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Uber and Traffic Fatalities

  The Review of Economics and Statistics · 2023-10-27 · 11 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Previous studies of the effect of ridesharing on traffic fatalities have yielded inconsistent conclusions. We revisit this question using proprietary data from Uber measuring monthly rideshare activity at the Census tract level. We find a consistent negative effect of ridesharing on traffic fatalities, with impacts concentrated during nights and weekends. Our results imply that ridesharing has decreased U.S. traffic fatalities by 5.2% in areas where it operates. The annual life-saving benefits are $6.8 billion. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that these benefits are of similar magnitude to producer surplus captured by Uber shareholders or consumer surplus captured by Uber riders.

  PublisherDOI

• Review 1: "Causal Evidence that Herpes Zoster Vaccination Prevents a Proportion of Dementia Cases"

  2023-06-28

  peer-reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This manuscript estimates the effects of a herpes zoster (i.e.shingles) vaccination, Zostavax, on future dementia diagnoses.To measure these effects it exploits a natural experiment in which Zostavax was offered to

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Replication data for: Uber and Traffic Fatalities

  Harvard Dataverse · 2023-09-12

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Replication code and public data for "Uber and Traffic Fatalities".

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lucas W. Davis

  University of California, Berkeley

  14 shared

• David A. Matsa

  11 shared

• N. Ohara

  University of Wyoming

  9 shared

• Jaeyoung Yoon

  Korea University

  9 shared

• Z. Q. Richard Chen

  Hydrologic Research Center

  9 shared

• M. L. Kavvas

  9 shared

• Fangwen Lu

  9 shared

• Carlos Dobkin

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  6 shared

Education

• PhD, Economics

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  2006

• MA

  Swarthmore College

  1999