Eller Economics Professor Featured on Popular Science

Ashley Langer, associate professor of economics in the Eller College of Management, was featured in a June 25 Popular Science article about the solar power market and predicted price changes.

The article explains that power companies are deciding whether to make rooftop solar systems more expensive, with the argument that solar owners are not paying enough for their share in the electricity grid.

Langer believes that despite the possible increase in cost, there still may be an incentive for buyers to invest in solar power: “If you are reimbursed 100 percent for all the electricity you generate, regardless of when in the year you generate it, then you could go to having a zero- electricity bill, even though you’re very much using the grid.”

Before coming to the University of Arizona in 2012, Ashley Langer worked at the University of Michigan and the Brookings Institution, and she earned degrees from the University of California-Berkeley and Northwestern University. Langer studies fundamental forces that affect major industries with widespread environmental impact and econometric approaches to solving research questions faced far beyond environmental economics.