Ashley Langer

Professor Langer's current research focuses on how consumers make decisions that affect the environment.  In particular, she is currently studying how consumers make decisions over which vehicles to drive, how those preferences may form endogenously within family networks, and how consumers choose when and where to purchase gasoline.  These questions have substantial implications for the design of energy policy, including the optimal level of gasoline taxes or corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards and potential incentives for alternative fuel vehicle adoption.  Professor Langer is also working on the effect of consumer demographics and demographic group preferences on vehicle pricing and has previously worked on the effect of congestion tolling on urban land use.