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

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

What Does an Electric Vehicle Replace?

Vehicles replaced by EVs are relatively fuel-efficient.

Working Paper

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

RFF’s Leard Presents New Analysis of CAFE Rollback

Media Highlight

What If US Fuel Economy Standards Went Away?