David Brown, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Energy Economics Industrial Organization Regulation

About

David Brown is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Energy Economics & Policy. His research lies at the intersection of energy economics, industrial organization, and regulatory policy. David's recent work considers questions in the electricity sector ranging from market design, market power, and pricing mechanisms for demand-side management and emerging technology adoption such as rooftop solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles. The objective of his work is to design regulatory policies to improve the operation of electricity markets. 

David is the President of the Canadian Association for Energy Economists, Faculty Affiliate at Stanford University's Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, and serves as a Co-Editor at Resource and Energy Economics, Senior Associate Editor of The Electricity Journal, and on the Editorial Boards of Utilities Policy and Competition and Regulation in Network Industries. 

Research

Primary Fields: Energy Economics, Industrial Organization, and Regulation

Secondary Fields: Applied Econometrics and Environmental Economics

Working Papers:

1. "Electricity Market Design with Increasing Renewable Generation: Lessons from Alberta," (with Derek Olmstead and Blake Shaffer) - Revise and Resubmit at The Electricity Journal
2. "Centralized Control Versus Pricing: A Demand Response Experiment" (with Blake Shaffer, Megan Bailey, Frank Wolak)
3. "Wholesale Price Prediction: The Role of Information and Transparency" (with Andrew Eckert and Douglas Silveira)

Publications:

1. "Electric Vehicles and the Energy Transition: Unintended Consequences of a Common Retail Rate Design," American Economic Review: Insights, Forthcoming (with Megan Bailey, Erica Myers, Blake Shaffer, and Frank Wolak)
2. "The Impact of Wholesale Price Caps on Forward Contracting" The Energy Journal, Forthcoming (with David Sappington)  
3. "Evaluating the Role of Information Disclosure on Bidding Behavior in Wholesale Electricity Markets" Energy Economics, Forthcoming (with Daniel Cajueiro, Andrew Eckert, and Douglas Silveira)
4. "Show Me the Money! A Field Experiment on Electric Vehicle Charge Timing" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, May 2025 (with Blake Shaffer, Megan Bailey, Frank Wolak) 
5. "The Value of Electricity Reliability: Evidence from Battery Adoption" Journal of Public Economics, November 2024 (with Lucija Muehlenbachs)
6. "Strategic Interaction Between Wholesale and Ancillary Service Markets" Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, December 2023 (with Andrew Eckert and Douglas Silveira) 
7. "Screening for Collusion in Wholesale Electricity Markets: A Literature Review" Utilities Policy, December 2023 (with Andrew Eckert and Douglas Silveira)
8. "Information and Transparency: Using Machine Learning to Detect Communication" Stanford Journal of Computational Antitrust, October 2023 (with Daniel Cajueiro, Andrew Eckert, and Douglas Silveira)
9. "Market Structure, Risk Preferences, and Forward Contracting Incentives" Journal of Industrial Economics, October 2023 (with David Sappington) 
10. "Evaluating the Impact of Divestitures on Competition: Evidence from Alberta's Wholesale Electricity Market" International Journal of Industrial Organization, July 2023 (with Andrew Eckert and Blake Shaffer)
11. "Employing Gain-Sharing Regulation to Promote Forward Contracting in the Electricity Sector" Journal of Regulatory Economics, January 2023 (with David Sappington)
12. "Procurement Auctions for Regulated Retail Service Contracts in Restructured Electricity Markets" Energy Economics, December 2022 (with Andrew Eckert and Derek Olmstead) 
13. "Load Following Forward Contracts" The Energy Journal, Summer 2022 (with David Sappington)
14. "Socioeconomic and Demographic Disparities in Residential Battery Storage Adoption: Evidence from California" Energy Policy, May 2022
15. "Pricing Patterns in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Unilateral Market Power or Coordinated Behavior?" Journal of Industrial Economics, March 2022 (with Andrew Eckert) 
16. "Vertical Integration and Capacity Investment in the Electricity Sector" Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, August 2021 (with David Sappington)
17. "On the Profitability of Self-Sabotage" Canadian Journal of Economics, March 2021 (David Sappington).
18. "Analyzing Firm Behaviour in Restructured Electricity Markets: Empirical Challenges with a Residual Demand Analysis" International Journal of Industrial Organization, January 2021 (with Andrew Eckert).
19. "Residential Electricity Pricing in Texas's Competitive Retail Market" Energy Economics, October 2020 (with C.H. Tsai, CK Woo, Jay Zarnikau, and S. Zhu).
20. "Does Locational Marginal Pricing Impact Generation Investment Location Decisions? An Analysis of Texas's Electricity Market", Journal of Regulatory Economics, August 2020 (with Chi-Keung Woo and Jay Zarnikau).
21. "On the Benefits of Behind-the-Meter Rooftop Solar and Energy Storage: The Importance of Retail Rate Design" Energy Economics, February 2020 (with Richard Boampong).
22. "Imperfect Competition in Electricity Markets with Renewable Generation: The Role of Renewable Compensation Policies" The Energy Journal, Spring 2020 (with Andrew Eckert).
23. "Motivating the Optimal Procurement and Deployment of Electric Storage as a Transmission Asset" Energy Policy, January 2020 (with David Sappington).
24. "Employing Simple Cost-Sharing Policies to Motivate the Efficient Implementation of Distributed Energy Resources" Energy Economics, June 2019 (with David Sappington).
25. "Information and Transparency in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Evidence from Alberta'' Journal of Regulatory Economics, December 2018 (with Andrew Eckert and James Lin). 
26. "Optimal Procurement of Distributed Energy Resources" The Energy Journal, Summer 2018 (with David Sappington).
27. "Capacity Payment Mechanisms and Investment Incentives in Restructured Electricity Markets," Energy Economics, August 2018.
28. "The Effect of Default Rates on Retail Competition and Pricing Decisions of Competitive Retailers: The Case of Alberta" Energy Policy, July 2018 (with Andrew Eckert).
29. "Carbon Pricing with an Output Subsidy under Imperfect Competition: The Case of Alberta's Restructured Electricity Market" Resource and Energy Economics, May 2018 (with Andrew Eckert and Heather Eckert).
30. "Analyzing Electricity Market Structure Changes and Mergers: The Importance of Forward Commitments" Review of Industrial Organization, February 2018 (with Andrew Eckert).
31. "The Effect of Subsidized Entry on Capacity Auctions and the Long-Run Resource Adequacy of Electricity Markets" Energy Economics, January 2018.
32. "On the Role of Maximum Demand Charges in the Presence of Distributed Generation Resources" Energy Economics, January 2018 (with David Sappington). 
33. “Optimal Policies to Promote Efficient Distributed Generation of Electricity” Journal of Regulatory Economics, October 2017 (with David Sappington).
34. "Measuring Market Power and the Efficiency of Alberta's Restructured Electricity Market: An Energy-Only Design" Canadian Journal of Economics, August 2017 (with Derek Olmstead).
35. "Mergers with Endogenous Forward Contracting" Journal of Regulatory Economics, June 2017  (with Andrew Eckert).
36. "Designing Compensation for Distributed Solar Generation: Are Common Net Metering Policies Optimal?" The Energy Journal, Spring 2017 (with David Sappington). 
37. "On the Optimal Design of Demand Response Policies," Journal of Regulatory Economics, June 2016 (with David Sappington).
38. "Effects of an Integrated Care System on Children with Special Healthcare Needs' Medicaid Expenditures," The American Journal of Managed Care, April 2016 (with Marcu, M., Knapp, C., Madden, V. and H. Wang). 
39. "Using Bayesian Imputation to Assess Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Performance Measures," Health Services Research, October 2015, pp. 1 - 14 (with Knapp, C. and M. Kaufmann). 

Book Chapters 

1. "Designing Incentive Regulation in the Electricity Sector," Handbook on Electricity Regulation, June 2025 (with David Sappington) - Working Paper
2. "Electricity Markets" The Elgar Encyclopedia on the Economics of Competition, Regulation and Antitrust, December 2024 (with Andrew Eckert) 

Policy-Focused Publications:

1. "Do Gentailers Charge Higher Residential Electricity Prices in the Texas Retail Electricity Market?" The Electricity Journal, May 2022 (J. Zarnikau and C.H. Tsai)
2. "Rising Market Concentration in Texas's Retail Electricity Market," The Electricity Journal, October 2020 (J. Zarnikau, P. Adib, C.H. Tsai, and CK Woo).
3. "Procuring Electric Storage as a Transmission Asset" The Electricity Journal, April 2020 (with David Sappington).
4. "Capacity Market Design: Motivation and Challenges in Alberta's Electricity Market," University of Calgary School of Public Policy, Briefing Paper Series, March 2018. 
5. “Electricity Markets in Transition: Market Distortions Associated with Retail Price Controls" The Electricity Journal, June 2017 (with Andrew Eckert and Heather Eckert). 

Permanent Working Papers:

"Self-Sabotage in the Procurement of Distributed Energy Resources" (with David Sappington)

Technical Appendices:

"Show Me the Money! A Field Experiment on Electric Vehicle Charge Timing" (with Blake Shaffer, Megan Bailey, Frank Wolak) 

"The Impact of Wholesale Price Caps on Forward Contracting" (with David Sappington)

"Employing Gain-Sharing Regulation to Promote Forward Contracting in the Electricity Sector" (with David Sappington)

"Market Structure, Risk Preferences, and Forward Contracting Incentives" (with David Sappington)

"The Impacts of Load Following Contracts" (with David Sappington).

"Pricing Patterns in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Unilateral Market Power or Coordinated Behaviour?" (with Andrew Eckert).

"Analyzing Firm Behaviour in Restructured Electricity Markets: Empirical Challenges with a Residual Demand Analysis" (with Andrew Eckert).

"Vertical Integration and Capacity Investment in the Electricity Sector" (with David Sappington).

"Imperfect Competition in Electricity Markets with Renewable Generation: The Role of Renewable Compensation Policies" (with Andrew Eckert).

"On the Benefits of Behind-the-Meter Rooftop Solar and Energy Storage: The Importance of Retail Rate Design" (with Richard Boampong).

"Information and Transparency in Wholesale Electricity Markets: Evidence from Alberta" (with Andrew Eckert and James Lin)

"Imperfect Competition in Electricity Markets with Renewable Generation: The Role of Renewable Compensation Policies" (with Andrew Eckert)

"Employing Simple Cost-Sharing Policies to Motivate the Efficient Implementation of Distributed Energy Resources" (with David Sappington)

"Self-Sabotage in the Procurement of Distributed Energy Resources" (with David Sappington)

"Optimal Procurement of Distributed Energy Resources" (with David Sappington)

"Mergers with Endogenous Forward Contracting" (with Andrew Eckert) 

"On the Role of Maximum Demand Charges in the Presence of Distributed Generation Resources'" (with David Sappington) 

"Measuring Market Power and the Efficiency of Alberta's Restructured Electricity Market: An Energy-Only Market Design" (with Derek Olmstead)

"Designing Compensation for Distributed Solar Generation: Are Common Net Metering Policies Optimal?" (with David Sappington)

"Capacity Payment Mechanisms and Investment Incentives in Restructured Electricity Markets"

"Promoting Efficient Distributed Generation of Electricity" (with David Sappington)

"On the Optimal Design of Demand Response Policies" (with David Sappington)

ECON 473 - Game Theory and Economic Applications

Analysis of structure and equilibrium of games. Applications to economic problems such as bargaining, auctions and collusion. Prerequisite: ECON 384. Not open to students with credit in ECON 484.

ECON 484 - Game Theory and Economic Applications

Analysis of structure and equilibrium of games. Applications to economic problems such as bargaining, auctions and collusion. Prerequisites: ECON 109, ECON 384 and 299 or equivalent.

ECON 900A - Directed Research Project

ECON 900B - Directed Research Project

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