Ashton Pallottini
Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, University of Chicago
Phone +1 616-581-5482
Email ashtonp@uchicago.edu
LinkedIn • GitHub • Twitter
Welcome! I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics at University of Chicago. I study questions in environmental economics and public economics, with my research in these fields often drawing on tools from behavioral economics. I am on the 2025-26 academic job market.
Research
Job Market Paper
Onset of Offsets: The Evolution of Social Rewards in Demand for Environmental Goods
Annual consumer expenditures on retail goods with environmental benefits are projected to reach $400 billion by 2032. I estimate how the visibility of such environmental goods influences demand via 'social rewards' that are garnered by consumers and change as a good's market evolves. I run an online RCT that generates variation in price, purchase visibility, and perceived market penetrations of carbon offsets -- an environmental good. I show that social rewards increase willingness-to-pay by 87% for environmental goods which are seen as having near-0% market penetration. This effect dissipates quickly for goods which are seen as more common, dropping below 15% for market penetrations of 12-50%. Consequently, I show that subsidies for carbon mitigation should be set $10 below the social cost of carbon for uncommon goods, sloping upwards in market penetration as social rewards disappear and consumer WTP for carbon mitigation decreases. Such findings highlight that social rewards are important drivers in demand for environmental goods, particularly when goods are uncommon.
Working Papers
Changing Gears: Elon Musk and the Role of Ideology in Demand for Environmental Goods
With Sofia Shchukina. Draft here
Ideological polarization is increasingly influencing everyday aspects of American lives, often detrimentally. We examine the extent to which ideology influences consumer welfare via demand for environmental goods. Using Texas vehicle registrations, we estimate that willingness-to-pay for the Tesla brand fell by $17,000 among Democrat ZIPs and $12,000 among moderate ZIPs from 2021Q1 through 2025Q1. We show that most of this decline is attributable to CEO Elon Musk’s Republican ideological shift. We estimate that Musk's 2024 election involvement corresponded to Tesla revenues decreasing by $124 million per year in Texas, with Democrat and moderate consumers substituting primarily to gas vehicles from competitors. Consequently, annual damages from Texan vehicular carbon emissions increased by $8 million and consumer surplus fell by $34 million. Our findings highlight that ideology drives consumption of environmental goods, often superseding actual environmental impact and other characteristics valued by consumers.
Urban Expansion, Drought Risk, and Willingness-to-pay for Piped Water
With Jun Wong and Emma Zhang. Draft here
Cities in the global south are rapidly expanding into areas that are not serviced by public utilities such as piped water, relying instead on private substitutes like groundwater. We examine rising groundwater drought risk to investigate how a shock to the quality of these private substitutes impacts demand for public utilities. We estimate that a major groundwater drought in Bangalore permanently increased residents' willingness-to-pay to live near the pipe network by 0.4% of monthly rents per 100m. We show consequently that new residential construction projects that are close to the piped water network increased by 25-51% relative to those that are farther. Using a structural model of housing demand, we find that housing market adjustment recover 20% of the welfare gains of expanded pipe access at just 2% the cost. Our findings highlight both that public infrastructure quality governs urban expansion and that housing markets enable adaptation to local environmental hazards.
Selected Works in Progress
EV or not EV: How Information Frictions Impact Willingness-to-pay to Mitigate Carbon Emissions
With Sofia Shchukina. Full scale complete. Preliminary manuscript here
Paper or Plastic: Impacts to Consumers from Eco-labeling
Third year paper. Pilot complete. Preliminary manuscript here
Rubbish Economics: The Joint Role of Community and Institutions in Driving Pollution in Developing Economies
With Jun Wong and Emma Zhang. Grant secured. App design
Informal Labor and Scalable Waste Management Solutions: Evidence from India
With Jun Wong and Emma Zhang. Grant secured. EPIC India coverage here.
Pollution as a Status Good: How Stigma Influences Demand for Living in Polluted Areas
Piloting stage. Slides available upon request.
Teaching
University of Chicago
ECON 11600: Experimental Design (Undergraduate)
Winter 2024: Teaching Assistant reporting to Fulya Ersoy
ECON 21020: Econometrics (Undergraduate)
Spring 2023: Teaching Assistant reporting to Murilo Ramos
ECON 41120: Topics in Behavioral Economics (Ph.D.)
Winter 2023: Teaching Assistant reporting to Leonardo Bursztyn
ECON 20010: Elements of Economic Analysis I Honors (Undergraduate)
Fall 2022: Teaching Assistant reporting to Victor Lima
BUSN 33801: Microeconomics (EMBA)
Fall 2022 and Fall 2023: Teaching Assistant reporting to Lars Stole
Michigan State University
STT 200: Statistical Methods (Undergraduate)
Summer 2020: Fixed Term Instructor reporting to Camille Fairbourn
Fall 2019 - Spring 2020: Teaching Assistant reporting to Harish Sankaranarayanan
Personal
Reading
I am a dedicated fantasy novel reader. Want to know how I think different fantasy books stack up? Check out my Goodreads here!