Jacquelyn Pless

Jacquelyn Pless is the Fred Kayne (1960) Career Development Professor of Entrepreneurship and an Assistant Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Her research interests are in the economics of innovation, energy and environmental economics, and public economics.

Her research focuses on understanding how policy affects firm behavior and innovation outcomes, with a particular interest in clean energy innovation. Current projects concentrate on the role of public subsidies in driving private research and development investments and the direction of innovation. Other work examines renewable energy markets and how environmental policy impacts firm competitiveness.

She holds an MS and PhD in mineral and energy economics from the Colorado School of Mines, and a BA in economics and political science from the University of Vermont.

Companies

• Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management MIT Sloan School of Management (2019)
• Honorary Research Associate University of Oxford (2019)
• Head of Analysis Quartz Associates (2017 — 2019)
• Oxford Martin Fellow University of Oxford, Institute for New Economic Thinking (2016 — 2019)
• Visiting Researcher and Postdoctoral Affiliate Harvard Kennedy School (2018 — 2018)
• Research Economist with the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2013 — 2016)
• Researcher The Wharton School (2015 — 2015)
• Energy Policy Specialist National Conference of State Legislatures (2010 — 2013)
• Legislative Assistant Pennsylvania House of Representatives (2009 — 2010)

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

• Pless, J., Hepburn, C., and Farrell, N., 2020. “Bringing rigour to energy innovation policy evaluation”, Nature Energy, 5, p. 284-290.
• Pless, J., Fell, H., and Sigrin, B., 2020. “Information Searching in the Residential Solar PV Market”, The Energy Journal, 41(4).
• Pless, J., van Benthem, A., 2019. “Pass-Through as a Test for Market Power: An Application to Solar Subsidies”, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(4), p. 367-401.
• O’Shaughnessy, E., Nemet G., Pless J., and Margolis R., 2019. “Addressing the soft cost challenges in U.S. small-scale solar PV system pricing,” Energy Policy, 134.
• Hepburn, C., Pless, J., Popp, D., 2018. “Encouraging Innovation that Protects Environmental Systems: Five Policy Proposals,” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 12(1), Winter, p. 154-169
• Heidari-Robinson, S., Heywood, S., and Pless, J., 2018. “How to Make Your Post-Merger Reorg a Success”, Harvard Business Review [online article only].
• McKenna E., Pless J., and Darby S., 2018. “Solar photovoltaic self-consumption in the UK residential sector: new estimates from a smart grid demonstration project,” Energy Policy, 118.
• Pless J., Fell, H., 2017. “Bribes, Bureaucracies, and Blackouts: Towards Understanding How Firm-Level Corrupt Behavior Impacts Electricity Reliability,” Resource and Energy Economics, 47, p. 36-55.
  ¨ Selected for coverage in “Research Highlights” by Nature Energy
  ¨ Finalist for IAEE Best Student Paper Award (2014)
  
• Pless J., Arent D., Cochran J., Logan J., and Zinaman O., 2016. “Quantifying the value of investing in distributed natural gas and renewable electricity systems as complements: Applications of discounted cash flow and real options analysis with stochastic inputs,” Energy Policy, 97.
• Sigrin B., Pless J., and Drury E., 2015. “Diffusion into new markets: Evolving customer segments in the solar photovoltaics market,” Environmental Research Letters, 10(8).
• Arent D., Pless J., Mai T., Wiser R., Hand M., Baldwin S., Heath G., Macknick J., Bazilian M, Schlosser A., and Denholm P., 2014. “Implications of high renewable electricity penetration in the U.S. for water use, greenhouse gas emissions, land-use, and materials supply,” Applied Energy, 123, p. 3368-377.