Hello! I’m Vasu

I am currently an Economic Fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University (NYU) School of Law.

I completed my PhD in July 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Corey Lang at the University of Rhode Island in the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics department.

I am an applied economist, with a strong background and research interests in Environmental Economics, particularly policy relevant analysis, distributional and environmental justice issues, and non-market valuation using both revealed and stated preference methods, and causal inference techniques.

Download my CV .

Interests
  • Applied economics
  • Econometric/Quantitative data analysis
  • Survey design, analysis
  • Policy relevant analysis
  • Geo-spatial analysis
  • Nonmarket valuation (revealed, stated preferences)
  • Renewable energy siting, Environmental Justice, Land-use, Natural resources
Education
  • PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, 2021

    University of Rhode Island

  • MS Economics (specialization in Environment and Natural Resource Economics), 2015

    TERI school of Advanced Sciences

  • BA (Hons) Economics, 2013

    University of Delhi

Research

Publications

Noack, F., Engist, D., Gantois, J., Gaur, V., F Hyjazie, B., Larsen, A., M’Gonigle, L.K., Missirian, A., Qaim, M., Sargent, R.D., Souza-Rodrigues, E., and Kremen, C. (2024). Environmental impacts of genetically modified crops. Science, 385(6712), eado9340.

Gaur, V., Lang, C. (2023). House of the Rising Sun: The Effect of Utility-Scale Solar Arrays on Housing Prices. Energy Economics, 122, 106699.

Dong, L., Gaur, V., Lang, C. (2023). Property Value Impacts of Onshore Wind Energy in New England: The Importance of Spatial Heterogeneity and Temporal Dynamics. Energy Policy, 179, 113643.

Gaur, V., Howard, G., Lang, C., Quainoo, R. (2022). When Energy Issues are Land Use Issues: Estimating Preferences for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Siting. Land Economics, 99(3), 343-363.

Trandafir, S., Gaur, V., Behanan, P., Uchida, E., Lang, C., and Miao, H. (2020). How Are Tourists Affected By Offshore Wind Turbines? A Case Study Of The First US Offshore Wind Farm. Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics, 7(1), 1.

Gaur, V., & Gupta, E. (2016). The determinants of Electricity Theft: An Empirical Analysis of Indian States. Energy Policy, 93, 127-136.


Manuscripts under Review

Quainoo, R., Howard, G., Gaur, V., Lang, C., “Model Choice and Framing Effects: Does Discrete Choice Modeling Affect Loss Aversion Estimates?” – Revise and resubmit: Journal of Choice Modelling [Draft Available upon Request]


Work in Progress

Gaur, V., Noack, F., & Souza-Rodriguez, E., Impact of New Crop Technology Adoption on a Global Scale Abstract

Gaur, V., Howard, G., Lang, C., Quainoo, R., Are the loudest voices in the room different? Testing preferences for engaged versus random samples. Abstract

Lang, C. and Gaur, V., Is it NIMBYism or Land Use Priorities that Drive Utility-Scale Solar Siting Preferences? Evidence from a Municipal Referendum. Abstract

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Institute for Policy Integrity, NYU School of Law
Economic Fellow, Energy and Environmental Justice
Oct 2023 – Present New York, NY, USA
  • Authored a guiding document advising agencies on how they can analyze and account for distributional issues in rules and regulations, and how communities and stakeholders can engage with the rulemaking process.
  • Co-authored four comment letters providing recommendations to various state and federal agencies regarding distributional and environmental justice issues.
 
 
 
 
 
University of British Columbia
Postdoctoral researcher
University of British Columbia
Jul 2021 – Aug 2023 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Project: Estimating the local and global impacts of genetically modified (GM) crop adoption on agricultural and environmental outcomes. Software used:

  • R (data analysis)
  • Python (data scraping)
 
 
 
 
 
University of Rhode Island
Research Assistant
University of Rhode Island
Aug 2016 – Jun 2021 Kingston, Rhode Island, USA

Projects: Several, including (but not limited to) non-market valuation of renewable energy using revealed and stated preference methods (primary and secondary data collection), causal inference regressions, and spatial analysis. Skills and software:

  • Stata (data analysis)
  • Qualtrics (survey design, data collection)
  • ArcGIS (spatial data analysis)
  • QGIS (spatial data analysis)
  • Tableau (data visualization)
  • Grant writing
  • Focus groups
 
 
 
 
 
University of Rhode Island
Teaching Assistant
University of Rhode Island
Aug 2017 – Dec 2017 Kingston, Rhode Island, USA
Sole instructor of first-year graduate-level introductory mathematics course.

Softwares

stata
Stata

Advanced

R

Proficient

python
Python

Basic

arcgis
ArcGIS

Proficient

qgis
QGIS

Proficient

tableau
Tableau

Beginner

Contact