Lauren RubensteinAssistant Professor of Economics Damien Sheehan-Connor is the author of an oped in the Orlando Sentinel (available to subscribers) arguing that raising the gas tax would not only help the environment, but would save lives on the road. Sheehan-Connor considers the findings of a new study out by the National Safety Council, which suggested that automobile accidents are on the rise again after years of decline. While many factors could potentially contribute to this reversal, he writes that it's likely that two seemingly positive developments--lower gas prices and stricter fuel economy standards imposed by the government--have played an important role. How? Lower…
Assistant Professor of Economics Damien Sheehan-Connor is the author of "Environmental Policy and Vehicle Safety: The Impact of Gasoline Taxes," published in the July 2015 issue of Economic Inquiry. In the paper, Sheehan-Connor considers the impact that policies to reduce carbon emissions by vehicles, such as fuel economy standards and gasoline taxes, have on vehicle weight and, consequently, on safety. The paper develops a model that separately identifies the impact of vehicle weight on mortality and selection effects that impact accident propensity. He found that the safety externalities associated with heavy vehicles are greater than the environmental ones; that under fuel economy…
Olivia DrakeDamien Sheehan-Connor, assistant professor of economics, received an $88,747 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his study titled "Bone Marrow Registries and Donor Motives." This grant, subcontracted with the University of California, Santa Barbara, will be applied over three years.