Research

Fields: Environmental Economics, Energy Economics, Econometrics, Behavioral Economics, Applied Microeconomics

1. The Long-Term Health Effects of Initiating Smoking in Adolescence: Evidence from a National Longitudinal Survey

Aliaksandr Amialchuk and Onur Sapci (2022), Health Economics, 31(4), 597– 613.

2. The Impact of Environmental Economics Class on College Students` Future Temperature Expectations

Onur Sapci (2021), Economics Bulletin, Vol. 0 No. 0 p.A160.

http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2021/Volume0/EB-21-V0-I0-P160.pdf

3. Discrepancies between Self-Reports and Behavior: Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Self-Reported Problematic Smartphone Use Severity, and Objectively Measured Smartphone Use

Dmitri Rozgonjuk, Jon D. Elhai, Onur Sapci and Christian Montag (2021). Digital Psychology, 2:2, 3-10.

http://dx.doi.org/10.24989/dp.v2i2.2002

4. The Relationship Between Smartphone Use and Students` Academic Performance

Onur Sapci, Jon Elhai, Aliaksandr Amialchuk, Christian Montag (2021), Learning and Individual Differences, 89:102035.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608021000728?dgcid=coauthor (Full Text)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2021.102035

5. Applying Machine Learning Methods to Model Social Interactions in Alcohol Consumption among Adolescents

Aliaksandr Amialchuk, Onur Sapci, Jon Elhai (2021) Addiction Research & Theory

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XXJQ7XCIIMHZ5CJ4SYTS/full?target=10.1080/16066359.2021.1887147 (Full Text)

https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2021.1887147

6. Objectively-measured and self-reported smartphone use in relation to surface learning, procrastination, academic productivity, and psychopathology symptoms in college students

Jon Elhai, Onur Sapci, Haibo Yang, Aliaksandr Amialchuk, Dmitri Rozgonjuk, Christian Montag (2021) Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(5), 912-921

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbe2.254

7. Consumer Perception of Food Expiration Labels: "Sell-by" vs. "Expires on".

Sapci, Onur and Ayse Sapci (2020) “Consumer Perception of Food Expiration Labels: "Sell-by" vs. "Expires on" Eastern Economic Journal, 46, pages: 673–689.

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-020-00175-3

https://rdcu.be/b5GYm (read-only full text version)

We design and conduct an experimental auction to investigate the effects of expiration labeling on consumers’ willingness to pay for food items. The experimental auction examines whether there is a valuation difference between “sell by” and “expires on” food labeling. We find that “sell by” date is perceived as an expiry date and consumers are willing to pay a premium for more clear information. In particular, “expires on” information about food expiry date has a 27% willingness to pay premium over “sell by” type labeling, showing that consumers prefer to avoid uncertainty in expiration information.

Keywords: food labeling, expiration dates, experimental auction, uncertainty

8. The Influence of Normative Misperceptions on Alcohol-Related Problems among School-Age Adolescents in the U.S.

Amialchuk, Aliaksandr and Onur Sapci (2020) “The Influence of Normative Misperceptions on Alcohol-Related Problems among School-Age Adolescents in the U.S.", Review of Economics of the Household.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-020-09481-3

Adolescents usually overestimate their peers’ alcohol use, and these misperceptions affect adolescents’ own alcohol-related behaviors. Using a nationally representative dataset of U.S. adolescents in grades seven to twelve, we estimate the effect of misperception about friends’ alcohol use on adolescents’ alcohol consumption behaviors and alcohol-related problems. Overestimation of friends’ alcohol use significantly increases the likelihood of all alcohol consumption behaviors and all alcohol-related problems approximately one year later. The influence of misperceptions of friends’ drinking is significantly larger for male adolescents than for female adolescents in the cases of heavy drinking, vomiting after drinking, and drunk driving.

Keywords: Substance use, Misperception, Social Norms, Adolescents, Add Health

9. Environment, Human Capital, and Growth

Sapci, Onur and Jason Shogren (2018) “Environmental Quality, Human Capital and Growth, Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy

https://doi.org/10.1080/21606544.2017.1384403

This study uses geographic variation in pollution changes from 2007 to 2009 induced by the 2007-2009 recession to measure the impact of changes in air quality on human capital. The exogenous shocks to air quality are induced by a recession in manufacturing and construction sectors. The methodology in this study compares the changes in human capital in counties that had large pollution reductions to the changes in human capital in counties with small pollution reductions while controlling for income changes and other heterogeneous trends across counties. This paper first presents a motivating model to show how environmental degradation affects human capital investments through negative health effects. The model illustrates how poor environmental quality can slow economic growth due to negative impacts on human capital. Using an extensive panel data for US counties, the empirical results show that a 1% reduction in pollution increases the human capital stock by 0.10%.

Keywords: Pollution, human capital, health, growth

10. The Effectiveness of Home Energy Audits: A Case Study of Jackson, Wyoming

Considine, Timothy and Onur Sapci (2016) “The Effectiveness of Home Energy Audits: A Case Study of Jackson, Wyoming”, Resource and Energy Economics, Volume 44, 52-70.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2016.02.004

This study examines the factors that influence households to adopt modifications recommended by home energy audits and whether these audits lead to significant reductions in electricity use. Household decisions after the audits are recorded along with the corresponding recommended modifications and the offers for co-funding. A discrete choice model of the household decision after the audit is estimated. The results indicate that the potential improvement in heating efficiency from the proposed modifications increase the probability of implementing conservation measures. Co-funding offers also significantly raise the odds of accepting the modifications but are relatively less important than anticipated efficiency improvements. Several approaches are used to determine whether and how much energy is saved after the audits. Electricity demand models are estimated using data two years before and after each household audit. For households who decide to modify their houses after the audit, monthly average electricity use per square foot decreases 7%. While there is an estimated 2% reduction in electricity use attributed to the audit by households who decided not to adopt the proposed modifications, this reduction is not statistically significant, casting doubt on the presence of modifications in behavior from the audit information itself. For all households audited, the results from the electricity demand models suggest that the LVE home energy audit program reduced household electricity use 4.7%. In contrast, a differences-in-differences approach using synthetic control groups based upon a smaller but still sizeable sample of 2,000 observations finds that home energy audits reduce household electricity use by more than 10 percent. Overall, these findings suggest that home audits result in modest but significant reductions in energy use.

Keywords: Energy conservation programs, Residential electricity use

11. Can verifiable information cut through the noise about climate protection? An experimental auction test.

Sapci, Onur, Aaron Wood, Jason Shogren and Jolene Green (2016) “Can Verifiable Information Cut Through the Noise about Climate Protection? An Experimental Auction Test”, Climatic Change, Volume 134, 87-99.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1502-3

Using an experimental auction, we explore how verifiable information affects the willingness to pay (WTP) for two climate friendly goods given the politicized climate change debate. We test whether the dissemination of (scientific) verifiable information lets subjects cut through the media noise. We define our baseline by first examining how noisy information (pro and con) about climate change affects WTP. We then consider how third party verifiable information within this noisy information affects WTP. Our results suggest subjects could cut through noisy information to process verifiable information. We find a significant WTP premium for climate protection. The verifiable information treatment increases the premium for both shade-grown coffee (by 51 %) and recycled paper (by 48 %). This suggests the WTP premium for climate change depends on the available information flow and the characteristics of the climate friendly good.

12. The Link Between Environmental Attitudes and Energy Consumption Behavior

Sapci, Onur and Timothy Considine (2014) “The Link Between Environmental Attitudes and Energy Consumption Behavior”, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Volume 52, 29-34.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2014.06.001

This paper examines the connection between household environmental attitudes and real energy consumption behavior using a data set of electricity use by 612 households in Wyoming, USA, along with survey on their opinions, perceptions, and attitudes to several environmental issues. The statistical analysis suggests that attitudes about environmental issues are associated with lower energy consumption. Environmentally concerned households tend to be more conservative on energy use. Contrary to the rather mixed results reported by previous studies, these results suggest that the link between household environmental attitudes and patterns of energy consumption is relatively strong.

Keywords: Energy use, Environmental attitudes, Household behavior

Published Conference Proceedings

Raker, David, Roshan Kini, Robert Huntsman, Michael Green, Onur Sapci, Thomas Stuart, Randy Ellingson, Raghav Khanna, Michael Heben (2018). Transactive Mitigation Of Variability In The Output Of 1 MW Photovoltaic Array Using Volttron^TM. 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC) (A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC & 34th EU PVSEC).

Working Papers

1. Sapci, Onur (2021) “Regional Labor Market Impacts of Unconventional Oil and Gas Developments: A County-Level Analysis of Migration Inflow and Outflow”. Under Review.

2. Sapci, Onur (2021) “Expectations for Future Changes in Climate: The Impact of Scientific Information”. Under Review.

3. Kustepeli, Yesim and Onur Sapci (2011) “Personal Income Tax Elasticity in Turkey”, Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Economics, Discussion Paper Series No 06/01 June