Outstanding Student Papers/Posters Awards
Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE/IAEE Best Student Paper Awards
USAEE especially encourages student work in energy economics. Each year, the Dennis J. O’Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Awards showcase and reward the best student work in the profession. Up to four students will present their work at the USAEE/IAEE North American Conference and receive a Student Paper Award of $500 cash plus a Conference Registration Fee Scholarship. Among those four, one will receive the Best Student Paper Award and an additional $500. A panel of judges makes all decisions. Award recipients must attend the conference to present their paper and receive their award during the Conference.
The awards honor Dennis J. O’Brien, a champion of students and an early leader of our Association. Dennis J. O'Brien co-founded the US Association of Energy Economics as a chapter of the IAEE in the early 1990s. He was President of the US Chapter during 1994 and 1995 and President of IAEE for 1997. Those who knew him remember him as being especially dedicated to helping students and energy economics professionals in the early stages of their careers. He passed away in 2005 on his return from that year’s North American Conference. The awards are funded in part by USAEE members and sponsors who have contributed to the USAEE Student Support Fund.
To student applicants: To enter the Dennis J. O’Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award competition, you must be a member of USAEE/IAEE. Send a PDF version of your paper to Doug Conrad, USAEE Executive Director, usaee@usaee.org. The paper must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages. Have your advisor send a letter on your behalf indicating that you are a full-time student (or recent graduate and not employed full-time) and indicating that the paper is your work (and not co-authored with non-students). Both the paper and the letter must be received by each year's deadline. The 2024 deadline is July 21. You will be notified of an Award . Note that travel and lodging costs are your responsibility. Also note that if you would like to present your paper at the Conference even if it does not receive a Finalist Award (and thus get presented in a special session), you must follow the regular paper submission procedures, submitting an abstract by the due date.
For further information contact Doug Conrad, USAEE Executive Director, usaee@usaee.org or 937.551.8200.
Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE/IAEE Best Student Paper Awards
USAEE/IAEE student members may compete for a Student Paper Award at the yearly USAEE/IAEE North American Conference. The author of the best paper receives the Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award and a $1,000 (USD) prize. To view the criteria for the next USAEE Best Student Paper Award, please see above.
Awarded Papers
40th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, CHICAGO, IL 2023:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place: |
Connor Colombe |
39th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, HOUSTON, TX 2022:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place: | Economic Impacts of Wildfire Adaptation: Public Safety Power Shutoffs in California |
Jill Horing, Stanford University |
VIRTUAL SESSION, 2020:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place: | Contracting for Electricity in Low Income Countries: the Role of Liquidity Constraints and Transaction Costs |
Megan Lang, UC Berkeley |
37th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, DENVER CO, 2019:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place: | Credit and attention in the adoption of profitable energy efficient technologies in Kenya |
Susanna Berkouwer, UC Berkeley and |
36th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON DC, 2018:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place: | Gone with the Wind: Consumer Surplus from Renewable Generation | Matt R Butner, University of Colorado, Boulder (Gone With The Wind Presentation) |
| Runner Up: | Insider trading on continuous intraday electricity markets? Some empirical evidence from Germany | Niyaz Valitov and Andreas Maier, University of Wuppertal ( View Presentation) |
| Runner Up: | The Abatement Cost of Methane Emissions From Natural Gas Production - Marks | Levi Marks, University of California, Santa Barbara ( View Presentation) |
35th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, HOUSTON, TX, 2017:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place (shared): | Natural Gas Salt Cavern Storage Cost Predictability | Nathalie Hinchey, Rice University |
| First Place (shared): | Dam Spillovers: Direct Costs and Spillovers from Environmental Constraints on Hydroelectric Generation | James Archsmith, University of California Davis (View Presentation) |
34th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, TULSA, OK, 2016:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award:
| First Place: | Heterogeneous responses and differentiated taxes: evidence from the heavy-duty trucking industry in the U.S. | Jen Z. He, University of Maryland (View Presentation) |
| First runner-up: | Fracking and Land Productivity: Effects of Hydraulic Fracturing on Agriculture | Naima Farah, University of Calgary (View Presentation) |
| Third Place: | Voting Behavior in the PJM Regional Transmission Organization | Kyungjin Yoo and Seth Blumsack, Penn State University |
| Fourth Place: | Private and Social Value of Blackout Risk Reduction | Anand Govindarajan, Pennsylvania State University |
33rd USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, PITTSBURGH, PA, 2015:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Wind Power Producers Costs And Associated Market Regulations: The Source of Wind Power Producers’ Market Power – Yang Yu, Stanford University
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Mike Redlinger, Drilling Down the Bakken Learning Curve- Colorado School of Mines
- Sarah Le Tang, Energy Prices and Investment in Energy Efficiency: Evidence from Chinese Industry 1997-2004- Brandeis University
- Hamid Aghaie, Resource Adequacy and Optimal Investment in Energy-only Markets, Vienna University
37th IAEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, NEW YORK CITY, 2014:
- Electricity Market Price Volatility: The Importance of Ramping Costs - Dan Werner – 1st
- Strategic Withholding Through Production Failures - Ewa Lazarczyk Carlson and Sara Fogelberg – Runner Up
- From Boom to Bust? A Critical Look at US Shale Gas Projections - Philipp M Richter – Runner Up
- Bribes Bureaucracies and Blackouts: Towards Understanding How Corruption Impacts the Quality of Electricity Supply to End-Users in Transition and Developing Economies - Jacquelyn Pless, Harrison Fell and Morgan Bazilian – Runner Up
32nd USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, ANCHORAGE, AK, 2013:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Migration and Fuel Use in Rural Mexico – Dale T. Manning, University of California, Davis
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Fossil Fuel Taxation in the Presidents 2013 Budget, Andre Barbe – Rice University
- Short-run Price-Inventory Dynamics in Crude Oil Market, Xin Jin – Southern Methodist University
- Heterogeneous beliefs regret and uncertainty: The role of speculation in energy price dynamics, Marc Joets - University of Paris Ouest
31st USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, AUSTIN, TX, 2012:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Liquidity Constraints and High Electricity Use Among Low-Income Households, Philipp-Bastian Brutscher, University of Cambridge
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of either $750 or $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Energy price transmissions during extreme movements, Marc Joets - University of Paris Ouest
- Evaluating policies to attain the optimal exposure to nuclear risks, Darko Jus - University of Munich
- Applying Advanced Uncertainty Methods to ImproveForecasts of Vehicle Ownership and Passenger Travel in China, Paul Natsuo Kishimoto - MIT
- Do Automotive Fuel Economy Standards Increase Rates of Technology Change? Don MacKenzie - MIT
30th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON, DC, 2011:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Evaluating Wind-Following and Ecosystem Services for Hydroelectric Dams in PJM - Alisha R. Fernandez, Pennsylvania State University
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of either $750 or $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- The Economics of the South Stream pipeline in the context of Russo-Ukrainian gas bargaining, Chi Kong Chyong - University of Cambridge
- The political economy of electricity market liberalization: a cross-country approach Erkan Erdogdu - University of Cambridge
- Oh Scrap The Decision to Scrap a Wind Turbine: Opportunity Cost, Timing and Policy, Johannes Mauritzen - Norwegian School of Economics
- Zonal Electricity Supply Curve Estimation with Fuzzy Fuel Switching Thresholds, Mostafa Sahraei-Ardakani - Pennsylvania State University
- How to regulate a market-driven rollout of smart meters? Jan Schaechtele - EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht
- Electricity Market Restructuring and Investment in Nuclear Power Chen-Hao Tsai - Pennsylvania State University
Papers prior to 2011 are available upon request from USAEE
Please email usaee@usaee.org with the author and year of presentation and it will be sent to you.
29th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA, 2010:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Identifying the Elasticity of Driving: Evidence from a Gasoline Price Shock in California - Kenneth Gillingham
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of either $750 or $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Howard Chong - University of California, Berkeley
- Nicolas Choquette-Levy, Rahul Nakhasi, Geoff Holmes & Marc Beaudin - University of Calgary
- Valerie J. Karplus - MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
- Christophe McGlade - University College London
- Aurelie Mejean, University of Cambridge
32nd IAEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (hosted by USAEE), SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 2009:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Idle Oil Wells: Half Empty or Half Full? - Lucija Muehlenbachs
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of $750 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Fatemeh Nazifi, Macquarie University
- Deepak Rajagopal, University of California, Berkeley
- Nic Rivers, Simon Fraser University
28th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, NEW ORLEANS, LA, 2008:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: Valuing Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles' Battery Capacity Using a Real Options Framework - Derek M. Lemoine
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Ayed Al-Qahtani, Colorado School of Mines
- David Baumann, University of Texas at Austin
- Jiyong Eom, Stanford University
- Janne Kettunen, London Business School
- Ning Wu, MIT
27th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, HOUSTON, TX, 2007:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: International Environmental Agreements: Is Global Cooperation Possible? - Katherine V. Calvin
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of $500 and complimentary conference registration are:
- Merrill Jones Barradale, University of California, Berkeley
- Elaine Frey, George Washington University
- Derek Lemoine, University of California, Berkeley
- Kathleen Spees, Carnegie Mellon University
- Fan Zhang, Harvard University
26th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, ANN ARBOR, MI, 2006:
The Dennis J. O'Brien USAEE Best Student Paper Award: A Stochastic Programming Framework for the Valuation of Electricity Storage - Pedram Mokrian & Moff Stephen
Other students who received USAEE Paper Awards with a stipend of $500 are:
- Adam Brandt, University of California, Berkeley
- Diana Schwyzer, University of California, Berkeley
- Svetlana Ikonnikova, Humboldt University, Berlin
- Daniel Dempsey, New York University
- Greg Nemet, University of California, Berkeley
- Olusegun Oladunjoye, University of Guelph
- Sophia Ruester, Dresden University of Technology
25th IAEE/USAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, DENVER, 2005:
Does Uncertainty Matter? A Competing Risks Analysis of Investment in Petroleum Refining Industry - Xiaoyi Mu - 1st
Optimal Environmental Policies in a Heterogeneous Product Market Under Research and Development Competition and Cooperation - Olusegun Oladunjoye - 2nd
Econometric Study On Long-term Energy Strategy of Malaysia to the year 2030 - focusing on the impacts of renewable energy-based power generation - Peck Yean Gan - 3rd
Impact Mitigation for Emergency Events: Their Effects on Day-ahead and Real Time Market Locational Based Marginal Pricing at the New York ISO - Shoko Nakano - 4th
24th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON DC, 2004:
Spatial Pattern in Modeling Electricity Prices: Evidence from the PJM Market - Julia Popova
23rd USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, MEXICO CITY, 2003:
Efficient Tariffs for Cost Revelation in a Price and Quantity Constrained Electric Power Market - Serhiy Kotsan
Poster Awards
As an additional way of encouraging student work in energy economics USAEE offers a Student Poster Session along with a Cash Prize at USAEE North American Conferences. Entrants must be a member of IAEE and a full-time student (where a full-time student is defined as being registered full-time according to the definition of their respective academic institution and not employed full-time) at the time of submission. At this unique event, students present their recent academic work, completed or in progress, to all conference delegates in a specially designed networking session. Posters and the presentations are judged by an independent panel and a single cash prize of $1000 is awarded to the student with the best poster presentation.
Previous Winning Posters
40th USAEE/IAEE North American Conference, Chicago, IL, 2023
Connor Colombe
University of Texas
39th USAEE/IAEE North American Conference, Houston, TX, 2022
Rising Energy Costs of Private Households: Analysis of Efficient Relief Measures for the Case of Germany
Jan Priesmann
Aachen University of Germany
View Abstract | View Poster
36th IAEE North American Conference, Washington DC, 2018
Under What Conditions is HVDC Conversion a Cost Effective Way to Increase Transmission Capacity in an Existing HVAC Corridor?
Liza B Reed
Carnegie Mellon University
View Abstract | View Poster
35th IAEE North American Conference, Houston, 2017
Welfare Impacts of Optimal Virtual Bidding in a Multi-Settlement Electricity Market with Transmission Line Congestion
Hyungkwan Kim
Andrew L Liu
Paul V Preckel
Purdue University
View Poster
Douglas Gotham
State Utility Forecasting Group
Welfare Impacts of Optimal Virtual Bidding Abstract
34th IAEE North American Conference, Tulsa, 2016
Drivers of Royalty Rates and Primary Terms and Primary Terms in Private U.S. Mineral Leases
Mark J Agerton
Rice University
Drivers of Royalty Rates and Primary Terms Abstract
33rd IAEE North American Conference, Pittsburgh, 2015
Understanding the Potential for Electricity Savings and Assessing Feasibility of a Transition towards DC Powered Buildings
Brock Glasgo
Chris Hendrickson
Ines Azevedo
Carnegie Mellon University
Understanding the Potential for Electricity Savings - Paper
37th IAEE International Conference, NYC, 2014
Overall Winner: Social Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Technology in the UK
Laura-Lucia Richter
PhD Student Economics, University of Cambridge
Social Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Technology in the UK - Paper
Monday Winner: How might Interprovincial Migration Affect the Impact of China's Energy Policies?
Xiaohu Luo
Institute for Energy, Environment, and Economy, Tsinghua University
Valerie J Karplus
Justin Caron
MIT Joint Program
Xiliang Zhang
Da Zhang
Tsinghua University
32nd USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, ANCHORAGE, AK, 2013
The winner of the poster presentation cash prize awarded by USAEE was Andre Barbe (Rice University) for his work entitled, Fossil Fuel Taxation in the Presidents 2013 Budget.
31st USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, AUSTIN, TX, 2012
The winner of the poster presentation cash prize awarded by USAEE was Burcu Cigerli (Rice University) for her work entitled, The Effects of North American Shale Gas on World Natural Gas Markets.
30th USAEE/IAEE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON, DC, 2011
The winner of the first poster presentation cash prize awarded by USAEE was Lucy Y. Qiu (Stanford University) for her work entitled, Energy Demand of U.S. Commercial Buildings.
