Mark Jacobsen is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. Jacobsen’s research focuses on energy and pollution policy, regulation, and taxes. It addresses three main themes: regulation of transportation and the automobile industry; the electricity sector; and optimal pollution policy in the context of the broader economy.
Jacobsen’s work on transportation examines the impact of regulation to reduce gasoline use, including the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, gasoline taxes, and the transition to electric vehicles. He has studied both the efficiency and distributional effects of these policies, empirically examining consumer purchase behavior, the response of automobile manufacturers to regulation, vehicle safety, and the used vehicle market. Jacobsen’s research on optimal policy choice applies to a wider set of environmental policies and taxes. He considers policymakers’ choices in the context of the broader economy, showing how factors like Ricardian rents, untaxed activity in the informal sector, and the presence of green preferences alters the type of environmental policy that is most efficient.
