Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy Seminar
Ellen Bruno is an assistant cooperative extension specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. She conducts research and outreach on economic and policy issues relevant to California’s agriculture and natural resources, with a particular focus on groundwater. She holds a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis, and a B.S. in management science from the University of California, San Diego.
This paper evaluates dynamics in the industry impacts of pricing environmental externalities. We study a volumetric pricing program introduced to address externalities from groundwater irrigation and exploit a natural experiment that exposed some firms to a large and permanent price increase. Using 10 years of post-treatment data on farm-level water and land use decisions, we find that farmers' water response to the price change doubles between the first and tenth year of the tax. In the longer-run, farmers also respond by permanently retiring land and temporarily fallowing irrigated acreage, margins that our short-run estimates do not detect. These findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for long-run margins of response when evaluating environmental policies.
Persons with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact Francisco Tutella at 814-865-4504 in advance of the seminar. U.Ed. EMS 22-07.