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How Do Airlines Cut Fuel Usage, Reducing Their Carbon Emissions?

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  • Brueckner, Jan K.

    (University of California, Irvine)

  • Kahn, Matthew E.

    (University of Southern California)

  • Nickelsburg, Jerry

    (UCLA)

Abstract

Airline fuel consumption is costly for the firms and for society as well due to a climate-change externality. We study how fuel price changes affect cost-minimizing choices by airlines that have implications for the extent of this externality. The airline industry's capital stock can be easily inventoried as a set of long-lived, durable aircraft. This portfolio approach allows us to study the utilization and composition of the capital stock at a highly disaggregated level. Changes in airline operations directed toward conserving fuel can be an important path toward lower emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Brueckner, Jan K. & Kahn, Matthew E. & Nickelsburg, Jerry, 2023. "How Do Airlines Cut Fuel Usage, Reducing Their Carbon Emissions?," IZA Discussion Papers 16189, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16189
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Robert & Kahn, Matthew E., 2024. "An economic analysis of United States public transit carbon emissions dynamics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    airline fuel consumption; energy conservation; carbon dioxide emissions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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