Three essays on environmental and energy economics

This dissertation reunites three empirical studies that highlight environmental, electric energy and car fuel questions The first chapter tries to understand how consumers value future energy savings. Should Brazil and other emerging economies consider implementing vehicle fuel efficiency standards policies? The rationale underpinning such a policy stems from the premise that consumers may not be capable of accurately assessing the fuel efficiency of automobiles when making purchasing decisions. This study employs a dataset encompassing new car sales and a nested logit demand estimation approach to gauge whether Brazilian consumers underestimate the value of fuel savings. With the official Brazilian interest rate as the assumed discount rate, the estimate suggests that Brazilian consumers are willing to allocate only 0.59 cents for every dollar saved on fuel. When simulating the model for different discount rates, the interest rate that makes consumers’ behavior rational is almost identical to the rate charged by Brazilian banks to finance new vehicles. This finding suggests that, instead of undervaluing the savings, consumers use different rates to estimate their savings. This insight can allow policy makers to design an efficient policy to offset the car usage externalities using the correct discount rate. The second chapter provides empirical evidence demonstrating that alterations in the relative utilization of gasoline and ethanol in Brazil have resulted in a reduction in hospitalizations attributed to common respiratory diseases. By leveraging specific changes in fuel taxes across various Brazilian states, I estimate a difference-in-differences model to estimate the causal impact of substituting gasoline for ethanol on the frequency of respiratory diseaserelated hospitalizations. I find that the tax modification induced a shift in the market dynamics of ethanol and gasoline, thereby incentivizing consumers to switch to ethanol. This shift leads to a substantial decline in hospitalizations associated with bronchitis in the states subjected to the tax treatment. The third chapter shows how the end of Daylight Savings changed electricity energy consumption in Brazil. Daylight saving policies are prevalent worldwide, often advocated for their potential to conserve energy during the summer months by adjusting the clocks. However, the actual effectiveness of this measure in energy savings remains a topic of debate. To investigate this, I conduct a study using the end of the daylight saving time (DST) policy in Brazil in 2019. Employing a difference-in-differences framework, I analyze its impact on electric energy consumption. I find no significant evidence that ending the DST policy had any notable effect on total energy consumption, and a negative effect on commercial consumption.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• De Souza Godeli, Arthur

Contributors dc:contributor

• Deryugina, Tatyana
• Christensen, Peter
• Lemus, Jorge
• Hultgren, Andrew

• Energy
• Environmental Economics
• Ethanol
• Daylight Savings
• Applied Micro
• Fuel

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Arthur De Souza Godeli

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125759

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F125759