E.T. Grether Chair in Business Administration and Public Policy | Faculty Director, Energy Institute at Haas | Professor
Economic Analysis & Policy | Energy Institute | Sustainability
Expert on the economics of renewable energy, economic policies for reducing greenhouse gases, and electricity pricing
About
Severin Borenstein is E.T. Grether Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business and faculty director of the Energy Institute at Haas. He is also Director emeritus of the University of California Energy Institute (1994-2014). He received his AB from UC Berkeley and PhD in Economics from MIT. His research focuses on business competition, strategy, and regulation. He has published extensively on the airline industry, the oil and gasoline industries, and electricity markets. His current research projects include the economics of renewable energy, economic policies for reducing greenhouse gases, and alternative models of retail electricity pricing. Borenstein is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA. He served on the Board of Governors of the California Power Exchange from 1997 to 2003. During 1999-2000, he was a member of the California Attorney General’s Gasoline Price Task Force. In 2010-11, Borenstein was a member of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood’s Future of Aviation Advisory Committee. In 2012-13, he served on the Emissions Market Assessment Committee, which advised the California Air Resources Board on the operation of California’s Cap and Trade market for greenhouse gases. In 2014, he was appointed to the California Energy Commission’s Petroleum Market Advisory Committee, which he chaired from 2015 until the Committee was dissolved in 2017. Since 2015, he has served on the Advisory Council of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. In 2019, he was appointed to the Governing Board of the California Independent System Operator.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Energy Policy and Climate Change
- Electricity Deregulation, Market Formation and Competition
- US and International Airline Competition
- Oil and Gasoline Market Pricing and Competition
- Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, Frank A. Wolak, and Matthew Zaragoza-Watkins. Expecting the Unexpected: Emissions Uncertainty and Environmental Market Design. Energy Institute at Haas Working Paper #274.
2018 - Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell. The U.S. Electricity Industry After 20 Years of Restructuring. Annual Review of Economic.
2015 - Severin Borenstein. The Trouble with Electricity Markets: Understanding California’s Restructuring Disaster. Journal of Economic Perspectives.
2002 - Severin Borenstein, James Bushnell, and Frank Wolak. Measuring Market Inefficiencies in California’s Restructured Wholesale Electricity Market. American Economic Review.
2002 - Severin Borenstein and Nancy Rose. Competition and Price Dispersion in the U.S. Airline Industry. Journal of Political Economy.
1994 - Severin Borenstein. Hubs and High Fares: Dominance and Market Power in the U.S. Airline Industry. Rand Journal of Economics.
1989
At Haas since 1996
2009 – present, E.T. Grether Chair in Business Administration and Public Policy
1996 – present, Professor, Haas School of Business
2009 – 2014, Director, Energy Institute at Haas
1994 – 2014, Director, University of California Energy Institute
1994 – 1996, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, UC Davis
1990 – 1994, Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, UC Davis
1983 – 1990, Assistant Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Department of Economics and Institute of Public Policy Studies, University of Michigan
1978 – 1979, Staff Economist, Office of Economic Analysis, US Civil Aeronautics Board
- 2019 – present, Member, California ISO Board of Governors
- 2015 – 2017, Chair, Petroleum Market Advisory Committee, California Energy Commission
- 2015 – present, Member, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Advisory Council
- 2012 – 2013, Member, Emissions Market Assessment Committee, California Air Resources Board
- 2010 – 2011, Member, U.S. Department of Transportation, Future of Aviation Advisory Committee
- 1997 – 2003, Member, Governing Board of California Power Exchange Corporation
- 1995 – 2000, Editor, Journal of Industrial Economics
- Past co-editor or editorial board member: Editorial Board Member, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Review of Economics & Statistics, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Industrial Economics
- 1992 – present, Research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
International Association for Energy Economics, Outstanding Contributions to the Profession Award
2015
Distinguished Fellow of the Industrial Organization Society
2015
Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award (for graduate student mentoring), UC Berkeley
2005
Distinguished Service Award, Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida
2005
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Full-Time MBA Program
2016, 1997
Michigan Economic Society Undergraduate Teaching Award
Fall 1987
National Science Foundation Research Grant #SES-8711576 “Efficiency in the Allocation of Operating Licenses”
1987 – 1990
- Here’s why your electricity prices are high and soaring, CBS News, 03/19/2021
- Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis, Vox, 03/11/2021
- California’s Climate Contradictions, The Wall Street Journal, 02/26/2021
- ‘I was just panicking’: Many Texans face sky-high electricity bills after winter storms — what can they do?, MarketWatch, 02/25/2021
- California’s rate inequality is likely to worsen as energy transition advances, pv magazine, 02/24/2021
- Report: California electricity rate structure is not equitable, Sacremento Business Journal, 02/23/2021
- Should California Link Electricity Bills to Customer Incomes?, Greentech Media, 02/23/2021
- Utility Bills Based on Household Income, PBS SoCal, 02/23/2021
- California’s electricity prices are so high that researchers worry people won’t ditch fossil fuel, San Francisco Chronicle, 02/23/2021
- Why the power grid failed in Texas and beyond, Los Angeles Times, 02/18/2021
- The Heart of California’s Darkness, National Review, 09/17/2020
- United Airlines layoffs to start next month, FOX2 KTVU, 09/02/2020
- California Braces for More Blackouts as Heat Wave Scorches West, The Wall Street Jounral, 08/16/2020
- California learns even flexible Emissions Markets won’t guarantee price stability, Energy Post, 07/20/2020
- How Covid-19 will change air travel as we know it, BBC Future, 07/09/2020
- Column: California’s gas tax is going up again. You should be pleased, Los Angeles Times, 06/25/2020
- Why do gasoline prices drop more slowly than oil prices?, San Diego Union-Tribune, 04/21/2020
- Energy economics class inspires students to pursue clean energy careers, MIT News, 04/13/2020
- Will your electricity bill go up if you’re working from home?, Quartz, 03/26/2020
- Energy and Environmental Markets, MBA212-1
