Economics for a Changing World: Graduate Student Presentations, 2025-2026

Throughout the 2025-2026 academic year, our graduate students presented their research at regional, national, and international conferences and workshops. Their work spanned environmental and resource economics, energy, agriculture, development, and behavioral economics, connecting them with scholars and practitioners working on climate, clean energy, and public well-being. Presentations are listed below, most recent first.

Rui Wang

Presented "Correcting Second-Order Beliefs Across the Political Divide: Experimental Evidence on Climate Change Beliefs"

Abstract: Misperceptions about others' beliefs are widespread and affect individuals' own beliefs and behaviors. On polarized issues, the effects of correcting these misperceptions may depend on political affiliation. I examine this using an online experiment on climate change beliefs in the United States, where attitudes are highly polarized. Using incentive-compatible methods, I elicit participants' own beliefs and their beliefs about others' beliefs (second-order beliefs). I then provide randomized information about others' actual beliefs from either a co-partisan or an opposing partisan source, and observe their belief updating and pro-climate actions. The findings show that correcting misperceptions in second-order beliefs about climate change shifts individuals' own beliefs and behaviors, and the effects depend on whether the individual and the information source are politically aligned. Stronger pro-climate beliefs from co-partisans increase individuals' pro-climate beliefs and actions, while the same information from opposing partisans may generate backlash. These results suggest that uniform social information campaigns may have limited impact on polarized issues, and messages aligned with the audience's political affiliation offer a more promising strategy for improving engagement.

Solomon Hope Agbesi

Presented "Solar Opposition in the United States: Regional Diffusion, Socioeconomic Drivers, and Policy Implications for Renewable Energy Siting"

Abstract: The rapid expansion of utility-scale solar energy is central to climate change mitigation in the United States, yet increasing local opposition has emerged as a significant barrier to project development. The study's main research questions are: What socioeconomic and political factors explain solar opposition? Does opposition exhibit spatial clustering and persistence over time? And what policy approaches can reduce resistance while supporting a just energy transition? The analysis employs a mixed-methods approach. Quantitatively, state-level panel data from 2006 to 2023 are analyzed using count-data models to identify key predictors of opposition, complemented by county-level spatial analysis using Join Count and Getis-Ord Gi* statistics to detect geographic clustering. Qualitative evidence is drawn from semi-structured interviews with energy practitioners in New England and a community survey conducted in Maine. Results indicate that prior opposition strongly predicts future opposition. Higher income levels and income inequality are also associated with greater opposition. Spatial analyses reveal significant clustering, particularly in the Northeastern US. Qualitative findings show that opposition is often driven by procedural exclusion, land-use concerns, and perceived inequities in benefit distribution rather than outright rejection of renewable energy. The study highlights the importance of participatory planning, transparent decision-making, and community-oriented project design to reduce opposition.

Yingyi Jin

Presented "Effects of Water System Consolidation"

Abstract: Safe and reliable drinking water is essential for public health, yet many U.S. water systems struggle to maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. These struggles arise, in part, due to aging infrastructure, limited financial capacity, and increasing exposure to emerging contaminants such as PFAS. Policymakers have increasingly turned to water system consolidation as a potential solution, but no rigorous large-scale evidence exists on whether consolidation improves water quality or alleviates financial constraints. This paper examines the impacts of water system consolidation on drinking water quality and local government finances in the U.S. We assemble a novel dataset of public water system consolidation activities in eight U.S. states between 2003 and 2019. These data are linked to drinking water quality outcomes, including the number and duration of health-based violations and the share of pollutant readings exceeding maximum contaminant level (MCL) standards, as well as local government finance data, system characteristics, and local socioeconomic conditions. We utilize a matched stacked difference-in-differences research design that accounts for staggered consolidation timing and non-random selection. Treated systems, both acquiring and acquired, are matched to comparable unconsolidated systems within the same state based on pre-treatment water quality history, system attributes, monitoring intensity, and local socioeconomic conditions. We find that consolidation leads to substantial and persistent improvements in drinking water quality for systems that are acquired by others, while effects for acquiring systems are modest. For acquired systems, consolidation reduces health-based violations by 0.08, corresponding to an approximately 40 percent decline relative to the average level. The share of readings exceeding MCL standards declines by about 0.35 percentage points, representing a roughly 20 percent reduction relative to baseline levels. These improvements emerge shortly after consolidation and persist in both the short and long run. Consolidation also reduces the duration of health-based violations for acquired systems, with event-study estimates indicating that these effects emerge several years after consolidation and persist over time. For acquiring systems, consolidation is associated with a statistically significant but smaller reduction of 0.06 violations, while changes in violation duration and MCL exceedances are modest and generally statistically insignificant. We also find that consolidation is associated with large increases in municipal water utility fiscal activity. Total expenditures rise by approximately 50 percent after consolidation, with total water utility revenues increasing by a similar magnitude. Ongoing work attempts to identify whether these revenue increases reflect higher water utility rates or increased financial support from other sources. Ongoing research also examines the cost-effectiveness of consolidation. Overall, our results suggest that water system consolidation can be an effective mechanism for improving drinking water quality, particularly for previously noncompliant systems, but that these improvements are accompanied by substantial fiscal expansion and important cost-sharing considerations.

Xiaolin Zhou

Presented "Almost Complete Subsidy Pass-through: Evidence from Production Based Solar Subsidy"

Abstract: We examine the pass-through of solar subsidies in Massachusetts by analyzing two distinct production- based incentive programs. We estimate annual generation for each residential solar installation and calculate the net present value of subsidies over a 10-year period using rich installation level data. Our empirical analysis shows customers capture most of the subsidy with almost complete pass-through from one program. The findings suggest that production-based subsidies can be highly effective in reducing net costs for solar adopters, though the magnitude of pass-through varies with program design and market conditions.

Rui Wang

Presented "Correcting Second-Order Beliefs Across the Political Divide: Experimental Evidence on Climate Change Beliefs" (abstract above, under 2026 ESA World Meetings)

Prashikdivya Gajbhiye

Presented "Weather Shocks, Workfare, and the Farmer Suicide Crisis in India"

Abstract: 300,000 Indian farmers have taken their lives in the past two decades, creating a national crisis. This marginalized population is particularly vulnerable to weather-induced crop failures. I examine how weather shocks affect farmer suicide rates, and whether government assistance programs can mitigate these effects, among the more than 120 million people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. I combine a novel dataset of daily farmer suicides at the village level with climate-econometrics regressions to find that hot temperatures have a greater effect on farmer suicides than previously believed. I further find that government assistance can greatly reduce the magnitude of these effects. Applying a value of statistical life to these avoided farmer suicides, government assistance generates benefits of approximately $138 million on each hot day, underscoring the substantial social benefit of the program.

Dhiroj Koirala
 

Rui Wang