Transportation

The transportation sector is a major source of CO₂ emissions that contribute to climate change; in the U.S., for example, cars and trucks alone are the source of about one-fifth of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.  
 

Research and Analysis

Learn about some of the recent transportation-related research and policy analysis that researchers affiliated with the MIT Climate Policy Center have coauthored:

• Harvard-MIT DCFC Stakeholder Working Group, “Plug & Charge: Recommendations to Speed Deployment,” Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, March 2025.
• Omar Isaac Asensio, Elaine Buckberg, Cassandra Cole, Luke Heeney, Christopher R. Knittel, and James H. Stock, “Charging Uncertainty: Real-Time Charging Data and Electric Vehicle Adoption.” National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper 33342, January 2025.
• Christopher R. Knittel and Shinsuke Tanaka, “Challenges to Expanding EV Adoption and Policy Responses.” MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research working paper 2024-16, October 2024. (A shorter research brief and news article containing highlights of this working paper are also available.)
• Cassandra Cole, Michael Droste, Christopher Knittel, Shanjun Li, and James H. Stock, “Policies for Electrifying the Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet in the United States.” AEA Papers and Proceedings 113 (May 2023): 316-322. A shorter MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research research brief containing highlights of this study is also available.)
• Chia-Wen Chen, Wei-Min Hu, and Christopher R. Knittel, “Subsidizing Fuel-Efficient Cars: Evidence from China’s Automobile Industry.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 13, no. 4 (November 2021): 152-184.
• Christopher R. Knittel and Shinsuke Tanaka, “Fuel Economy and the Price of Gasoline: Evidence from Fueling-Level Micro Data.” Journal of Public Economics 202 (October 2021): 104496.
• Antonio M. Bento, Mark R. Jacobsen, Christopher R. Knittel, and Arthur A. Van Benthem, “Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Fuel-Economy Standards.”  Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy 1 (2020): 129-157.
• Lucas W. Davis and Christopher R. Knittel, “Are Fuel Economy Standards Regressive?” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 6, no. S1 (March 2019): S37-S63.
• Hunt Allcott and Christopher Knittel, “Are Consumers Poorly Informed about Fuel Economy? Evidence from Two Experiments.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 11, no. 1 (February 2019): 1–37.

Additional Research from MIT 

• Emil Dimanchev, Stein-Erik Fleten, Don MacKenzie, and Magnus Korpås, “Accelerating Electric Vehicle Charging Investments: A Real Options Approach to Policy Design,” MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research working paper 2023-03, February 2023. (A shorter brief summarizing this research is also available.)
• Siddhi S. Doshi and Gilbert E. Metcalf, “How Much are Electric Vehicles Driven? Depends on the EV.”  MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research working paper 2023-01, January 2023. (A shorter brief summarizing this research is also available.)
• Jonas Martin, Anne Neumann, and Anders Ødegård, “Sustainable Hydrogen Fuels versus Fossil Fuels for Trucking, Shipping and Aviation: A Dynamic Cost Model,” MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research working paper 2022-010, July 2022. (A shorter brief summarizing this research is also available.)
• Nathan Delacrétaz, Bruno Lanz, and Jeremy van Dijk, “Technology Adoption and Early Network Infrastructure Provision in the Market for Electric Vehicles,” MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research working paper 2021-015, October 2021. (A shorter brief summarizing this research is also available.)