UHERO
Michael Roberts
Not All Regions Are Alike: Evaluating the Effect of Oil Price Shocks on Local and Aggregate Economies
Using a sample of 48 contiguous U.S. states for the period 1973-2013, we study how oil price shocks influence state-level economic growth. The analysis incorporates…
A Pocket Full of PIMs
By Michael Roberts In the arcane parlance of utility regulation, PIMs are “Performance Incentive Mechanisms.” This is where we’re headed because, slightly against my expectation,…
Variable Pricing and the Cost of Renewable Energy
On a levelized-cost basis, solar and wind power generation are now competitive with fossil fuels, and still falling. But supply of these renewable resources is…
Should regulators fear bond-rating agencies?
By Michael Roberts It seems that our political and administrative leaders worry about the bond rating agencies. Their fear is understandable. The cost of capital…
Michael Roberts Receives Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s Quality of Research Discovery Award
UHERO congratulates Michael Roberts, recipient of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s Quality of Research Discovery Award for his article, “Who Really Benefits from Agricultural Subsidies?…
What a Difference a Rate Makes
By Michael Roberts UHERO’s Energy Planning and Policy Group has been writing about how variable pricing of electricity, both wholesale and retail, can lower the…
Incentives for the Utility
By Michael Roberts *This post follows up on two previous installments in the Sustainable Energy Blog Series: Embrace Policy Experiments for Demand Response and Four Years to…
Embrace Policy Experiments for Demand Response
By Michael Roberts *This post follows up on the previous post in the Sustainable Energy Blog Series: Four Years to Improve Renewable Energy. HECO has…
Four Years to Improve Renewable Energy
By Michael Roberts Without the debt-ceiling hijinks of earlier years, the federal budget bill passed at the end of last year with a lot less…