Benjamin Leard

Fellow

Benjamin Leard is a Fellow at Resources for the Future. He is an environmental economist who focuses his work on transportation policy, climate change, and discrete choice modeling. His recent work involves estimating household preferences for vehicle attributes and evaluating the costs and benefits of fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for light duty vehicles. His work has been published in Science and he has been cited in the Washington Post for his research on consumer demand for autonomous vehicles.

Education

PhD in applied economics and management, Cornell University, 2014
BS in mathematics and economics, James Madison University, 2008

Topics

Featured Publications

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Report — Jun 14, 2017

How Much Do Consumers Value Fuel Economy and Performance? Evidence from Technology Adoption

Current US passenger vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards will roughly double fuel economy and cut emissions. Recently tightened standards have reduced fuel costs, but have had roughly zero net effect on consumer well-being.

Working Paper — Apr 17, 2019

Pass-Through and Welfare Effects of Regulations that Affect Product Attributes

We show that the relationship between pass-through and welfare changes does not hold for a regulation that affects production costs and product attributes.

Working Paper — Apr 4, 2019

Estimating Preference Heterogeneity in Discrete Choice Models of Product Differentiation

The application of a new method for estimating discrete choice models shows that tightening fuel economy standards have modest impacts on new vehicle sales.

Featured Media

Press Release — Aug 22, 2019

New Blog: Will Colorado Achieve its Electric Car Goal?

In a new blog, Benjamin Leard and Clayton Munnings review Colorado's ZEV program and its chance of succeeding.

Media Highlight — May 31, 2019

"Limit eased on summer ethanol sales"

RFF's Ben Leard spoke with Marketplace about how the expansion of ethanol sales can affect land use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Press Release — Feb 26, 2019