The Effects of Electrifying Transportation
This Research Assistantship position is being offered in association with the Yale Economic Growth Center’s (EGC) pilot Data Science for Development Program.
This project aims to collect evidence and construct a model to evaluate the implications of the electrification of transportation. The electrification of transportation will require a doubling of the production of electricity, large improvements in the grid, and massive investments in charging infrastructure. This transition is also slowed down by the challenges in battery technologies and materials as electric cars require very large battery storage and have typically more limited range than their fossil counterparts. What is the cost of such transition and how subsidies in purchasing electric cars or installing electric chargers can help? This research aims to answer these questions with theory and data.
Requisite Skills and Qualifications
Students need to be acquainted with statistical software such as R or Stata. Also they need to be familiar with MATLAB. They will be required to collect data on the electrification of transportation for different countries, information on charging stations, and electric car adoption. They will also be required to help with building a model of alternative modes of transportation (electric, traditional fossil fuel) and estimate it.