Research

• Do users respond to congestion pricing? Evidence on demand elasticity from managed lanes (with Pedro LInares and J. M. Labeaga)

Empirical evidence on price elasticities under congestion pricing remains scarce, typically relying on discrete policy changes or low-frequency data that limit identification. Evidence remains extremely limited for managed lanes in interurban environments with time-of-day-varying tolls. Using high-frequency hourly data from two major California corridors, we estimate demand elasticity within a panel regression framework exploiting continuous variation in tolls across routes, hours, and days of the week. This identification strategy overcomes key limitations in the existing literature and enables estimation of short-run demand responses. We also analyze how responsiveness evolves over time, shedding light on medium-run behavioral adjustments. The results provide new evidence on user price sensitivity in managed lanes and contribute to the broader debate on whether congestion pricing effectively reduces congestion or primarily redistributes traffic, with implications for the design and evaluation of pricing policies. 

• When subsidies miss their target: Evidence on pass-through heterogeneity from a generalized fuel discount in Spain (with Manuel Hidalgo and Ángel Martínez)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 severely disrupted energy markets, triggering a spike in global oil prices. To mitigate the impact on consumers, Spain introduced a 20-cent-per-liter fuel discount, effective until the end of 2022. This study assesses the pass-through of the discount to retail prices using a combination of regression discontinuity and matched panel regression approaches with daily data from over 11,000 petrol stations. We analyze how different types of operators (vertically integrated, branded, and independent) responded to the policy and examine its impact on the retail price distribution. The results reveal a negative relationship between a station's initial price and the pass-through of the discount, with lower-priced stations raising prices more in response to the policy. This pattern is particularly pronounced for diesel and among independent and retailer-managed branded stations, which captured a larger share of the subsidy. A quantile regression discontinuity analysis further highlights that price increases were concentrated in the lower end of the price distribution, amplifying differences across station types. However, our matched panel regression, which traces price differentials between each station and its nearest vertically integrated counterpart, shows that they gradually converge after approximately 36 to 43 days. Overall, the findings highlight how generalized public discounts can temporarily distort market competition and may not reach final consumers in full, a lesson of renewed relevance as the 2026 Iran war energy crisis prompts Spain and other European governments to implement similar fuel tax relief measures.

• Hidalgo-Pérez, M., Collado, N., Galindo, J., & Mateo, R. (2024). The iberian exception: Estimating the impact of a cap on gas prices for electricity generation on consumer prices and market dynamics. Energy Policy 

• Van-Baumberghen, N. C. (2023). Hacia un mix energético descarbonizado: Beneficios, desafíos y oportunidades de la reforma del mercado eléctrico. ICE, Revista de Economía.

Cómo descarbonizar de manera eficaz y justa (with Marta Suárez-Varela & Pedro Linares). Chapter in Raigada, T., Gortazar, L., Galindo, J., & Roldán, A. (Eds.), Un país posible: Manual de reformas políticamente viables. Deusto, 2023.

• El impacto del mecanismo de ajuste de carbono en frontera: Evidencia disponible y retos futuros (with Pedro Linares). Cuadernos de Energía, Nº 79, pp. 49–55, Marzo 2025.

• A quién llegan los bonos energéticos: Un análisis por nivel de renta y tipos de familia (with Ángel Martínez). EsadeEcPol Insight, 51, Septiembre 2024.

• The Iberian Exception: Estimating the Impact of a Cap on Gas Prices for Electricity Generation on Consumer Prices and Market Dynamics (with Manuel Hidalgo, Jorge Galindo & Ramón Mateo). EsadeEcPol, 2023.

• Los efectos del tope al gas en los precios, la inflación y el consumo seis meses después (with Manuel Hidalgo-Pérez, Jorge Galindo & Ramón Mateo). EsadeEcPol Policy Insight, 43, Febrero 2023.

• ¿Logró la subvención al transporte público metropolitano sacar coches de las ciudades? Un análisis con datos de tráfico en tiempo real de la ciudad de Madrid (with Jorge Galindo & Javier Martínez). 2023.

• ¿Cuál va a ser el efecto en España del nuevo impuesto de la UE sobre las emisiones en las importaciones? (with Pedro Linares & Ángel Martínez). 2023.

• ¿Cómo ha afectado el descuento de los combustibles al precio en las estaciones de servicio? (with Manuel Hidalgo & Ángel Martínez). EsadeEcPol Brief, Julio 2022.

• El impacto del ajuste en frontera al carbono sobre la competitividad industrial (with Pedro Linares). EsadeEcPol Insight, 38, Junio 2022.

• Radiografía de las divisiones y consensos de la sociedad española en torno al cambio climático (with Sandra León, Lluís Orriols, Pablo Fernández-Vázquez, Javier Galindo & Adrián Fernández). EsadeEcPol Insight, 39, Junio 2022.