Southwest Economy
Electric reliability concerns spur Texas backup generation boom
Amid growing concerns about reliability of electricity services across power-hungry Texas, deployment of back-up power sources—microgrids and alternative generation—is increasing. These assets, serving customers ranging from college campuses to oilfield operations, help keep the lights on when disaster strikes.
December 06, 2024
Dallas Fed Economics
Dirty air from wildfires casts a cloud over household finances
Using California's Camp Fire as a natural laboratory, this article examines the effects of both fire and smoke-related air pollution on household credit card spending and repayment.
September 24, 2024
Working Paper
Do Bill Shocks Induce Energy Efficiency Investments?
This paper studies whether electricity bill shocks draw attention to the benefits of home energy efficiency investments.
September 20, 2024
Southwest Economy
Old oil fields reimagined as lithium sources
The Smackover Formation, extending broadly from East Texas to Florida, is ground zero in the effort to produce lithium from oilfield brines.
September 20, 2024
Dallas Fed Economics
Rents, home values depressed in air pollution hotspots
Wildfire smoke pollution may significantly affect housing market activity in locations hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the fires.
August 27, 2024
Working Paper
Unequal Climate Policy in an Unequal World
This paper characterizes optimal climate policy in an economy with heterogeneous households and non-homothetic preferences. The authors focus on constrained efficiency, where the planner is restricted from transferring resources across households.
July 16, 2024
Southwest Economy
Addressing Texas grid reliability: Time to go nuclear?
Thirty years after Texas’ last nuclear plant opened, new nuclear generation could provide needed power without planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
May 13, 2024
Southwest Economy
Development bank funds border infrastructure to aid U.S.–Mexico trade
Calixto Mateos, former managing director of the North American Development Bank, discusses his work at the NADBank and its role enhancing trade.
March 22, 2024
Southwest Economy
Hotter summer days heat up Texans but chill the state economy
As climate change intensifies over the next decade, summer heat waves will likely become more common and severe. The effect on Texas GDP growth is likely to be twice as pronounced as in the rest of the U.S. Meanwhile, the effect on job growth will likely be relatively subdued but vary widely across sectors.
October 18, 2023
Global Transportation Decarbonization
A number of policy proposals call for replacing fossil fuels in the name of decarbonization, but these fuels will be difficult to replace due to their as-yet unrivaled bundle of attributes: abundance, ubiquity, energy density, transportability and cost.
July 31, 2023