About

Lucas W. Davis is the Jeffrey A. Jacobs Distinguished Professor at Berkeley Haas. His research focuses on energy and environmental markets, with particular emphasis on electricity and natural gas regulation, pricing in both competitive and non-competitive markets, and the economic and business impacts of environmental policy. He serves as co-editor of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining UC Berkeley in 2009, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. His expertise and research interests include energy and environmental economics, applied microeconomics, and public finance.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Economics
• Geography
• Engineering
• Operations research
• Economic growth
• Econometrics
• Electrical engineering
• Business
• Environmental health
• Environmental economics
• Demographic economics
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Transport engineering
• Finance

Selected publications

• Political Ideology and U.S. Electric Vehicle Adoption

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-03-01 · 6 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Erratum: What Matters for Electrification? Evidence from 70 Years of U.S. Home Heating Choices

  The Review of Economics and Statistics · 2025-09-01

  erratumOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In Lucas W. Davis's article in the May 2025 issue of this review (Vol. 107, No. 3, pp. 668–684), a production error resulted in an incorrect percentage appearing on page 673.In the following sentence, 6% should be 16%:The corrected sentence reads:The article has now been corrected.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Does Regulation Distort Exit Decisions? Evidence from U.S. Power Plants

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Why Did Air Conditioning Adoption Accelerate Faster Than Predicted? Evidence from Mexico

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-08-01 · 1 citations

  report1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Distributional Effects of US Tax Credits for Heat Pumps, Solar Panels, and Electric Vehicles

  National Tax Journal · 2025-01-24 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author

  US households have received more than $47 billion in tax credits since 2006 for heat pumps, solar panels, electric vehicles, and other “clean energy” technologies. Using information from tax returns, we show that these tax credits have gone predominantly to higher-income filers. The bottom three income quintiles have received about 10 percent of all credits, while the top quintile has received about 60 percent. The most extreme is the tax credit for electric vehicles, for which the top quintile has received more than 80 percent. These patterns have changed little over time. We then present evidence on cost-effectiveness and discuss broader economic considerations.

  PublisherDOI

• Political Ideology and U.S. Electric Vehicle Adoption

  Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Economic Perspective on the EPA’s Clean Power Plan — Cross-State Coordination Key to Cost-Effective CO₂ Reductions

  WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks · 2025-05-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Does Regulation Distort Exit Decisions? Evidence from U.S. Power Plants

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-11-01

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Hundreds of power plants have closed in the United States since 2010, including 130+ gigawatts of coal and 50+ gigawatts of natural gas.In this paper, we highlight the potential for regulation to distort this type of exit decision.Using generator-level data from 2010-2023, we show that regulated units have been 45% less likely to exit than unregulated units.For unregulated units, exit decisions are made based on wholesale electricity prices, ongoing capital costs, and other traditional economic factors.In contrast, owners of regulated units are largely insulated from these factors and, in some cases, have a strong incentive to continue operating capital-intensive equipment.Previous work documents how this regulatory distortion affects investment decisions.Our paper emphasizes that these same incentives affect exit decisions as well.

  PublisherDOI

• Why Did Air Conditioning Adoption Accelerate Faster than Predicted? Evidence from Mexico

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Competitive Effects of Entry in Gasoline Markets

  Journal of Industrial Economics · 2025-07-14 · 1 citations

  article1st author

  ABSTRACT We use panel data on the location, prices, and quality of the universe of gas stations in Mexico to study the competitive effects of entry on incumbent firms. Using more than 1000 entry events and defining local markets based on the road network, we find that the entry of a new station within 3 min driving time decreases regular gasoline prices by 6% of the retail price spread. Competitive effects decline with travel time and are largest in markets that previously had only one station. Entry of stations with the same owner as the incumbent has near‐zero effects. The effect of competition on quality is less clear, with suggestive evidence of improved service quality in some specifications.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Judson Boomhower

  45 shared

• Catherine Hausman

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  31 shared

• Lutz Kilian

  25 shared

• Paul Gertler

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  16 shared

• Stephen W. Salant

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  14 shared

• Janet Currie

  Princeton University

  14 shared

• Michael Anderson

  University of California, Berkeley

  14 shared

• James H. Stock

  Harvard University

  13 shared

Education

• PhD, Economics

  Univ of Wisconsin

  2005

Awards & honors

• Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Full-Time MBA Progra…
• Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Executive MBA Progra…