Research
Working Papers
- (Job Market Paper) Fraud and Market Competition: Evidence from Emission Inspection Market. (pdf)
In this paper, I test whether the number of local competitors affects the prevalence of fraud in the market of vehicular emission inspections. Using data from the vehicular inspection program in Atlanta, I estimate the incidence of the most common form of test fraud (clean piping) to be 9% of the passing inspections during the sample period. Moreover, I find that one more competing inspection station within a 1/2 mile radius is associated with an increase of fraud by 0.7%.
- Electricity Demand Under Real-time Pricing: The Texas Case. (with Steve Puller, working paper)
Time-varying prices (TVP) can mitigate market power in wholesale markets and promote the integration of intermittent generation sources such as wind and solar power. In this paper, we study unique firm-level data on commercial and industrial customers that can voluntarily adopt TVP in Texas. We find a meaningful level of take-up of TVP. In some sectors more than one-quarter of customers face TVP. Nevertheless, the estimated price responsiveness of consumption is still small.
- Short-Term Elasticity of Demand in Texas: A Regression Discountiuity Approach. (Work in progress)
During congestion episodes transmission lines reach maximum capacity and the wholesale electricity market splits from one into four different areas, each with a different price. I take advantage of this exogenous change in prices to identify the elasticity of demand of electricity in the short-term. In contrast with previous results from other studies in Texas, preliminary results show a negative and significant effect of prices on real time consumption.