Date/Time
Date(s) - 21/11/2025
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Katherine Wagner, Assistant Professor from the University of British Columbia will present to our graduate students and faculty in KTH 334!

Katherine is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses primarily on Environmental and Energy Economics and Public Finance. She uses a range of empirical tools to study questions related to environmental externalities, climate change, and natural resources. She is also a Research Affiliate of the CESifo Network.

Before joining UBC, she was an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. She completed her PhD in Economics at Yale University, and also holds an MA in Economics from the University of British Columbia and a BA in Economics and Accounting from McGill University.

She will be presenting “Are We Consuming Too Much Groundwater?” (joint with Brian Greaney, UWashington and Joseph Shapiro, UC Berkeley).

Abstract

We study the optimality of human groundwater extraction from many of the world’s 3,400 aquifers. Some prominent aquifers have declining levels because use exceeds recharge. We use remote sensing and administrative data to estimate a dynamic model of water extraction for each aquifer, recover the discount factor that rationalizes observed groundwater extraction, and compare it against normative and market benchmarks. We estimate that all global aquifers have a total present value above $100 trillion. Two-thirds to four-fifths of aquifers are extracted too rapidly, decreasing aquifer present value by 2 to 5 percent. Policies that guarantee users constant indefinite water quantities, through subsidies or prior appropriation, or especially that fully discount future extraction, generate larger welfare costs.

Learn more about Katherine’s work and connect with her through her professional website.