Kenneth Gillingham

About

Kenneth Gillingham is the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Yale School of the Environment and a professor of economics at Yale, with primary appointment at the School of the Environment and secondary appointments in the Department of Economics and School of Management. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His background includes serving as the Senior Economist for Energy and the Environment at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during 2015-2016. Gillingham's research focuses on energy and environmental economics, drawing from applied microeconomics, behavioral economics, industrial organization, and integrated assessment modeling of climate change. He has published extensively on consumer decisions and policy related to transportation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, with work appearing in top-tier journals such as Science, Nature, and the Journal of Political Economy. His career includes positions at the California Air Resources Board, Resources for the Future, Stanford Energy Modeling Forum, and the Joint Global Change Research Institute of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in management science & engineering and economics, and his educational background includes an A.B. from Dartmouth College and M.S. degrees from Stanford University. Prior to his career as an economist, he worked as a wilderness ranger in Wyoming and New Hampshire.

Research topics

• Economics
• Computer Science
• Microeconomics
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Algorithm
• Biology
• Finance
• Neoclassical economics
• Business

Selected publications

• Peer influence on household energy behaviours

  Nature Energy · 2020-01-27 · 361 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Short-run and Long-run Effects of Covid-19 on Energy and the Environment

  Joule · 2020 · 223 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon

  Nature · 2021 · 69 citations

  PublisherDOI

• Consumer Myopia in Vehicle Purchases: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

  American Economic Journal Economic Policy · 2021 · 55 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  A central question in the analysis of fuel economy policy is whether consumers are myopic with regards to future fuel costs. We provide the first evidence on the consumer valuation of fuel economy from a natural experiment that provides exogenous variation in fuel economy ratings. We examine the short-run equilibrium effects of a restatement of fuel economy ratings that affected 1.6 million vehicles. Using the implied changes in willingness to pay, we find that consumers act myopically: consumer…

  DOI

• Attribute substitution in household vehicle portfolios

  The RAND Journal of Economics · 2020 · 21 citations

  Abstract Roughly three quarters of vehicles are purchased into multi‐car households. We study whether households are willing to substitute attributes, such as fuel economy, across vehicles within their portfolio. We develop a novel strategy to separately identify idiosyncratic preferences for an attribute from these within‐portfolio effects. Using the universe of household vehicle registration records in California over a 6‐year period, we find that two‐car households exhibit strong substitution…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher R. Knittel

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  128 shared

• Marten Ovaere

  38 shared

• Stephanie Weber

  32 shared

• Antonio M. Bento

  The University of Texas at Austin

  31 shared

• Bryan Bollinger

  27 shared

• Kevin Roth

  The University of Texas at Austin

  27 shared

• Richard G. Newell

  21 shared

• David Rapson

  20 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Management Science & Engineering and Economics

  Stanford University

  2011

• M.S., Statistics

  Stanford University

  2010

• M.S., Management Science & Engineering

  Stanford University

  2006

• A.B., Economics, Environmental Studies

  Dartmouth College

  2002

Awards & honors

• Fulbright Fellowship to New Zealand

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Michelle L. Bellh-116
• Thomas E. Graedelh-114
• Janet Currieh-98