David Rapson
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics

Jump to the sections below:
Biography
Contact Information
Teaching
Publications
Working Papers
Works in Progress
Book Chapters
Curriculum Vitae (PDF file)

Brief Biography

David Rapson joined the Economics Department at UC Davis in 2008. Professor Rapson specializes in the fields of industrial organization, energy and the environment, with a focus on how to achieve efficiency in energy markets. His research includes several collaborative studies with regulated utilities. These include the evaluation of dynamic pricing regimes, carbon offset programs, and the design and analysis of a large-scale randomized field experiment to test the effectiveness of Home Area Network technology (the customer-facing side of the "Smart Grid"). Professor Rapson received his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1999, an M.A. in economics from Queen's University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Boston University in 2008.

Contact Information

Department of Economics
University of California
One Shields Ave
Davis, CA 95616

Office: 1127 SSH
Phone: (530) 752-5368
Email: dsrapson ***at*** ucdavis.edu

Publications

• "The Rebound Effect is Overplayed" (with Kenneth Gillingham, Matthew Kotchen, and Gernot Wagner)
  Nature (2013), 493: 475-476. Long form version available here.

• "Split Incentives in Residential Energy Consumption" (with Kenneth Gillingham and Matthew Harding)
  Energy Journal (2012), 33(2): 37-62.

• "Does It Pay, at the Margin, to Work and Save? Measuring Effective Marginal Taxes on Americans' Labor Supply and Savings" (with Laurence Kotlikoff)
  Tax Policy and the Economy, NBER Volume, MIT Press, Volume 21, 2007
  (PDF copy of October 2006 pre-publication version)

Working Papers

• "Knowledge is (Less) Power: Experimental Evidence from Residential Energy Use" (with Katrina Jessoe). Online appendix.
  (Revisions requested from American Economic Review)

• "Does Absolution Promote Sin? The Conservationist's Dilemma" (with Matthew Harding)
  (Revisions requested from Journal of Environmental Economics and Management)

• "Durable Goods and Long-Run Electricity Demand: Evidence from Air Conditioner Purchase Behavior"

• "Commercial and Industrial Demand Response Under Mandatory Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing" (with Katrina Jessoe)

• "Are Residential Electricity Consumers Utility Maximizers? Evidence from a Natural Experiment" (with Katrina Jessoe and Jeremy Blair Smith)

• "Internet and the Efficiency of Decentralized Markets: Evidence from Automobiles" (with Pasquale Schiraldi)

Works in Progress

• "Understanding Residential Response to Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing" (with Katrina Jessoe and Jeremy Blair Smith)

• "Measuring the Indirect Land Use Effects of Ethanol" (with Christopher Knittel)

• "More on the Rebound Effect" (with Kenneth Gillingham, Matthew Kotchen, and Gernot Wagner)

Book Chapters

• "Comparing Average and Marginal Tax Rates under the FairTax and the Current System of Federal Taxation," (with Laurence Kotlikoff) in John Diamond and George Zodrow, eds., Fundamental Tax Reform: Issues, Choices, and Implications, MIT Press 2008.
  (PDF copy of October 2006 pre-publication version)

Teaching

• Industrial Organization (PhD), UC Davis (2009-present)

• Industrial Organization (Undergraduate), UC Davis (2009-present)

• Efficiency in Energy Markets (Undergraduate and Masters), UC Davis (2012-present)

• Intermediate Microeconomics (Undergraduate), Boston University (2006)

David Rapson's department homepage
Send comments or report broken links to dsrapson ***at*** ucdavis.edu
Revised May 2013