116th Gezhi Economic Forums

Theme: Equity and Distributional Considerations of Energy Transitions

Guest Speaker: Yueming Qiu (University of Maryland)

Time:  Thursday, January 4, 2024, 9:00-10:30am

Venue: 214, Business School Building

Organizer: Department of Economics

Guest Bio:

Yueming Qiu, Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, and Vice President for Academic Affairs, U.S. Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), specializes in using quasi-experimental and experimental methodologies and based on big data technologies to explore the interaction mechanisms among consumer behavior, energy technologies, and incentives, She received her Ph.D. degree from Stanford University and B.A. from Tsinghua University, and she chaired the U.S. She has been awarded the NSF CAREER Award and the APPAM World Citizen Award for Environmental Performance by the American Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), and her research has been published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of the American Academy of Engineering, and the Journal of the American Academy of Engineering. Economics and Statistics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Nature Energy, Nature Sustainability, Nature Communications and other prestigious journals.

Synopsis：

Energy plays a critical role in addressing climate change and satisfying human needs. Changes in energy systems can have unequal and distributional effects on different sectors and consumer groups. Such changes can result from climate change, new energy technologies, and government interventions. I assess and highlight such equity issues so that policymakers can formulate social-welfare-improving energy programs while avoiding unintended and undesirable inequities. In this talk, I will discuss several recent research papers related to the equity and distributional considerations of energy transitions. The first paper examines the negative impact on housing prices from hydrogen infrastructure facilities and the implications for environmental justice. The second paper examines the unequal impact on the power system resilience due to extreme weather and natural disasters. The third paper illustrates how government programs may address both equity challenges and energy transitions.