David Rapson

David Rapson is a Chancellor’s Leadership Professor in the UC Davis Economics Department, Economic Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and Co-Director of the Davis Energy Economics Program (DEEP). The central objective of Professor Rapson’s work is to understand and demonstrate how consumers and firms respond to incentives, and what this implies for effective energy, environmental and economic policy. His work examines a central tension of the energy transition. Government intervention can improve outcomes when markets fail and when policies create proper incentives; but poorly conceived policies may undermine goals that they are trying to achieve or inadvertently harm peoples’ economic circumstances. Dr. Rapson’s research seeks to understand the difference. Professor Rapson is an expert on electric vehicles, energy markets, climate policy and regulation, and has recently written on the effects of sanctions on Russia. His research appears in the American Economic Review, Science, Nature, and other academic journals. Dr. Rapson is a Co-Editor of The Energy Journal, has he held various posts in service to the profession and the community including Treasurer of the US Association of Energy Economists, Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Editorial Council member of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economics. He earned degrees from Dartmouth College (AB), Queen’s University (MA) and Boston University (PhD in Economics).