Jonathan Weir, Class of ‘15, second year master’s student in Agriculture and Applied Economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, gave a presentation titled, “Optimizing the Expansion of the Purdue Transportation Service Vehicular Fleet: The Case for Electric Vehicles (EVs)” at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association’s (AAEA) annual conference in Chicago, Illinois. The poster was co-authored by Dawoon Jeong, Alecia Evans, and Weir.
The AAEA is one of the leading organizations for professional advancement and knowledge about agricultural, development, environmental, food and consumer, natural resource, regional, rural, and associated areas of applied economics and business.
The paper used the Purdue University’s transportation department data, car expansion goals, and environmental goals in a mathematical model to analyze the cost and emission effects of expanding by Electric Vehicles (EVs) such as, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model 3 (as well as additional electric charging stations).
Since both car models can currently receive government subsidies when purchased, the paper also performed an analysis on EV subsidies and carbon taxes or a “carbon emissions offset cost” to control for changes in the government’s environmental policy and Purdue’s emission goals. The research findings show that the university could reduce the purchase and annual maintenance cost by over $304,000 when expanding by EV’s, as well as reduce annual emissions from the transportation department by 3.09% or 240 metric tonnes carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
“I was honored to be involved in a paper that was selected by the AAEA for a presentation. It was an amazing experience that also gave me the additional benefit of listening to seminars and presentations by leading experts in the field of applied economics. I hope to be back, presenting at next year’s conference in D.C. as well,” Weir said.
Weir, a Natchez native, is the son of Director of Educational Equity and Inclusion/ Title IX LLJuna Weir, Class of ‘95 and Dante Weir.
