Lucija Muehlenbachs

Shale Gas Downside

Lucija Muehlenbachs has estimated how much people are willing to pay to avoid the risk of water contamination from shale gas development using data on property sales. She has examined the impacts of traffic accidents associated with shale gas truck traffic; characterized the chemical composition of shale gas waste water; estimated the water quality impacts of shale gas development on rivers and streams; evaluated the exemption of shale solid waste from US federal regulations governing toxic waste; estimated the amount of money utilities in the US are spending to abate methane leaks; and estimated the impacts of lower natural gas prices on electricity prices and emissions.

Ms. Muehlenbachs’ research falls under the broad theme of the economic and environmental implications from fossil fuel production and consumption. While at CESifo she will be working on several ongoing projects, including research on the interactions of different pollutants in the atmosphere as well as inequities resulting from resource extraction. She has published extensively on the oil and gas industry, on topics such as end-of-life liabilities, environmental enforcement, implications on housing prices, water quality, waste management, and truck traffic. These papers have appeared in the American Economic Review, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the International Economic Review among other journals. Achievements include providing analysis for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling and serving on the editorial boards of five journals (as co-editor at Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Resource and Energy Economics, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics, and the Canadian Journal of Economics).

Lucija Muehlenbachs is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary and a University Fellow at Resources for the Future. She received a BSc degree from the University of Alberta and a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland.