Postdoctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Benjamin Krebs
SNSF Ambizione Fellow
University of Basel
Welcome to my homepage. I am a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione Fellow at the University of Basel Faculty of Business and Economics (WWZ). I am an empirical economist interested in environmental and energy topics. My research investigates how pollution and heat affect human performance, health, and behavior, I study the implications of new technologies to measure air quality, and analyze the benefits and costs of environmental policies. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.
Peer-reviewed Articles
Krebs, Benjamin (2024). Temperature and Cognitive Performance: Evidence from Mental Arithmetic Training. Environmental and Resource Economics 87(7), 2035–2065..
- Research brief
Krebs, Benjamin and Simon Luechinger (2024). Air Pollution, Cognitive Performance, and the Role of Task Proficiency. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 11(4), 921–958.
Krebs, Benjamin and Matthew Neidell (2024). Wildfires Exacerbate Inequalities in Indoor Pollution Exposure. Environmental Research Letters 19 024043.
Krebs, Benjamin, Jennifer Burney, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Matthew Neidell (2021). Using Crowd-Sourced Data to Assess the Temporal and Spatial Relationship between Indoor and Outdoor Particulate Matter. Environmental Science & Technology 55(9), 6107–6115.
Krebs, Benjamin and Simon Luechinger (2020). The Effect of an Electricity Tax on Aggregate Electricity Consumption: Evidence from Basel. Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics 156, 1-20.
- Media: SRF, 10/10/2018; Ökonomenstimme, 04/15/2021
Working Papers
Graff Zivin, Joshua, Benjamin Krebs, and Matthew Neidell (2024). Private Adoption of Public Good Technologies: The Case of PurpleAir. NBER Working Paper No. 32356.
- Meida: Time Magazine
- Cocktail pairing
We study the private adoption and diffusion of a technology that provides a local public good – PurpleAir (PA) pollution monitors. From a purely informational perspective, the ideal spacing of these monitors should reflect the degree of spatial correlation in pollution. In stark contrast, we find that monitor adoption is spatially highly clustered in less polluted areas, suggesting the marginal monitor adopted provides minimal additional public information. Moreover, monitor adoption mainly occurs in affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods, underscoring the potential environmental justice concerns associated with the private provision of this public good.
Other Publications
Krebs, Benjamin and Joel O’Neill (2014). Neue Universitätsrankings für die Schweiz: Geist und Geld. CREMA Working Paper, 2014-02.
- Media: NZZ am Sonntag, 01/26/2014; Ökonomenstimme, 01/28/2014; SRF 01/28/2014
Microeconomics II exercises, University of Lucerne (2020, 2018, 2017)
Microceonomics I exercises, University of Lucerne (2016)
Find my CV here:
Contact
Benjamin Krebs
University of Basel
Faculty of Business and Economics
Office 4.39
Peter Merian-Weg 6
CH - 4052 Basel