Angela Gunn

“Water Quality Management in a Federalist Setting” (Job Market Paper)

I investigate spillover effects of state-level water quality enforcement on interstate waters. To separate the effect of state level policy from other sources of water quality variation, I compare water quality in a state and its neighbors before and after the state receives federal authorization to conduct its own pollution permitting programs. In preliminary estimates, I find no evidence of free-riding, but suggestive evidence that water quality in border rivers improves when at least one border state receives authorization from the EPA.

“Estimating Willingness to Pay for Water Quality in the United States” (with Felipe Flores Golfin)

We estimate willingness to pay for drinking water quality in the US from consumers’ avoidance behavior. Specifically, we use data on bottled water consumption and tap water quality to estimate a household level discrete choice model of drinking water. We find that households are willing to pay an extra 0.8 to 1.8 cents per oz of bottled water (10% to 23% of the median price per oz of bottled water) to avoid a decrease of one standard deviation in water quality. We also find that willingness to pay increases with income.

“Effects of Child Marriage Reform in Ethiopia”

I investigate the effect of family law reform in Ethiopia which raised the minimum age of marriage to 18. I rely on region-level variation in time of implementation to identify the reform’s effects. Consistent with prior literature, I find some positive effects, including a modest decline in very early marriage and suggestive evidence that the reform disproportionately shifts more advantaged women from early to adult marriage. Furthermore, I find improvements with regards to underage fertility, education, and wives’ decision-making power among women with exposure to community events and media access. However, I caution that these effects may be confounded by pre-existing trends. Taken collectively, my analysis is unable to reject the hypothesis that reform followed, rather than caused, upward trends in age at marriage.

BEPP/OIDD 263/763 (Spring 2021)

This course examines environmental and energy issues from an economist’s perspective. Over the last several decades, energy markets have become some of the most dynamic markets of the world economy, as they experienced a shift from heavy regulation to market-driven incentives. First, we look at scarcity pricing and market power in electricity and gasoline markets. We then study oil and gas markets, with an emphasis on optimal extraction and pricing and geopolitical risks that investors in hydrocarbon resources face. We then shift gears to the sources of  environmental problems, and how policy makers can intervene to solve some of these problems. We talk about the economic rationale for a broad range of possible policies: environmental taxes, subsidies, performance standards and cap-and-trade. In doing so, we discuss fundamental concepts in environmental economics, such as externalities, valuation of the environment and the challenge of designing international agreements. There is special emphasis on the economics and finance of renewable energy, including an introduction to energy storage. Other topics include energy efficiency and transportation policies such as fuel-economy and electric vehicle standards.

Past Courses

• BEPP250 - MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS

  This course will introduce you to "managerial economics" which is the application of microeconomic theory to managerial decision-making. Microeconomic theory is a remarkably useful body of ideas for understanding and analyzing the behavior of individuals and firms in a variety of economic settings. The goal of the course is for you to understand this body of theory well enough so that you can effectively analyze managerial (and other) problems in an economic framework. While this is a "tools" course, we will cover many real-world applications, particularly business applications, so that you can witness the usefulness of these tools and acquire the skills to use them yourself. We will depart from the usual microeconomic theory course by giving more emphasis to prescription: What should a manager do in order to achieve some objective? That course deliverable is to compare with description: Why do firms and consumers act the way they do? The latter will still be quite prominent in this course because only by understanding how other firms and customers behave can a manager determine what is beswt for him or her to do.