Blake Shaffer

Assistant Professor

Department of Economics

School of Public Policy

University of Calgary

Biography

Blake Shaffer is an assistant professor in the department of economics and school of public policy at the University of Calgary. His work focusses on electricity markets, climate policy and energy transitions. He uses empirical methods to evaluate policy effectiveness and better understand consumer and firm behaviour.

Prior to returning to academia, Shaffer had a 15 year career in energy trading, specializing in electricity, natural gas and emissions markets. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Calgary, Master of Philosophy in economics from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from Queen’s University. He has recently held visiting scholar and Fulbright postdoctoral scholar positions at the Toulouse School of Economics and Stanford University.

His recent research has been published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Canadian Journal of Economics and the Energy Journal. His popular writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Postmedia, CBC, and other media outlets. Shaffer has also served as policy advisor for the governments of Alberta, British Columbia and Canada on various energy and environmental policy matters.

Interests

Electricity markets
Climate policy
Energy transitions

Education

PhD in Economics, 2018

University of Calgary
MPhil in Economics, 2003

Cambridge University
BSc (Honours) in Environmental Sciences, 2000

Queen's University

Featured Publications

Blake Shaffer

August 2020 American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

Misunderstanding Nonlinear Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on Residential Electricity Demand

This paper examines how consumers respond to nonlinear prices. Exploiting a natural experiment with electricity consumers in British Columbia, I find evidence that some households severely misunderstand nonlinear prices| incorrectly perceiving that the marginal price applies to all consumption, not simply the last unit. While small in number, the exaggerated responses by these households have a large effect in aggregate, masking an otherwise predominant response to average price. Previously largely unexplored in the literature, this type of misunderstanding has important economic, policy and methodological implications beyond electricity markets. I estimate the welfare loss for these households to be the equivalent of 10% of annual electricity expenditure.

Preprint PDF

Journal Articles

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Blake Shaffer, Nic Rivers (2020). Stretching the Duck: How rising temperatures will change the level and shape of future electricity consumption. Energy Journal.

Blake Shaffer, Mokhtar Tabari (2020). Paying for performance: The role of policy in energy storage deployment. Energy Economics.

Blake Shaffer (2020). Misunderstanding Nonlinear Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment on Residential Electricity Demand. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.

Blake Shaffer, Andrew Leach, Nic Rivers (2020). Canadian electricity markets during the COVID-19 pandemic: An initial assessment. Canadian Public Policy.

Blake Shaffer (2019). Location matters: Daylight saving time and electricity demand. Canadian Journal of Economics.

Preprint PDF DOI

Blake Shaffer, Georgina Santos (2004). Preliminary Results of the London Congestion Charging Scheme. Public Works, Management and Policy.

Preprint PDF DOI

Working Papers

Blake Shaffer, Nic Rivers (2020). How do consumers spend carbon tax rebates?. Working Paper.

Peer-reviewed Policy Papers

Blake Shaffer (2019). The Role of Storage in Alberta’s Electricity Market: Summary of a School of Public Policy Roundtable Event. School of Public Policy Summary Paper.

Blake Shaffer, Ben Dachis, Vincent Thivierge (2017). All’s Well that Ends Well: Addressing End-of-Life Liabilities for Oil and Gas Wells. C.D. Howe Institute Research Paper.

Blake Shaffer, Kent Fellows, Michal Moore (2016). The Challenge of Integrating Renewable Generation in the Alberta Electricity Market. School of Public Policy Summary Paper.

Blake Shaffer, David Houle, Mark Purdon (2016). The Political Economy of Free Allocations in Revenue Recycling: Six Position Papers on the Options for Recycling Carbon Pricing Revenue. Ecofiscal Commission.

Blake Shaffer (2016). Lifting the hood on Alberta’s royalty review. School of Public Policy Briefing Paper.

Policy Blogs

As Electricity Demand Sinks, Ontario Power Costs Rise 24 Percent With More to Come, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Apr 21, 2020 (with Grant Bishop)
Power demand in the time of COVID-19, School of Public Policy, Energy & Environmental Policy Trends, Apr 16, 2020 (with Andrew Leach and Nic Rivers)
Using forward contracts to deliver reliable and affordable power, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Oct 18, 2019
Will electric vehicle subsidies spur widespread adoption?, School of Public Policy, Energy & Environmental Policy Trends, May 23, 2019
You get what you pay for: Considering cost and value in renewables procurement, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Dec 18, 2018
To Change or not to Change? The Daylight Savings Debate Won’t Die, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Mar 6, 2018
Alberta’s Renewable Auction Sets a New Low for Prices, but Tweaks Are Needed in the Future, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Dec 14, 2017
What’s the Real Deal with Keystone XL?, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Nov 21, 2017
Smooth transitions: Shifting from cap-and-trade to a carbon tax, Ecofiscal Commission blog, Nov 15, 2017 (with Dale Beugin and Trevor Tombe)
On Site C: Dam(ned) if You Do, Dam(ned) if You Don’t, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Nov 3, 2017
An Ontario surprise: a good idea about electricity pricing, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Sep 10, 2017
Does Daylight Saving Time Reduce Energy Consumption? (Part 1), C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Mar 7, 2017 (with Nic Rivers)
Does Daylight Saving Time Reduce Energy Consumption? (Part 2), C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Mar 8, 2017 (with Nic Rivers)
Reconciling Pipelines with Canada’s Climate Goals, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Dec 8, 2016 (with Trevor Tombe)
What Does a Capacity Market Mean for Alberta?, C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, Nov 24, 2016

Popular media

Alberta’s shift away from coal power is a climate action success story, CBC, Oct 15, 2020 (with Andrew Leach)
On the wrong track: Alberta loses $2.1B on crude-by-rail contracts, CBC, Sep 1, 2020
Alberta’s government is using coronavirus as a shield for laying off education workers, Globe and Mail, Apr 5, 2020 (with Trevor Tombe)
Beyond pipelines: The nation-building project that could electrify Canada, Globe and Mail, Mar 17, 2020 (with Sara Hastings-Simon)
Alberta’s carbon-pricing policy is imperfect – but in one significant way, it’s actually better than Ottawa’s, Globe and Mail, Oct 29, 2019
Les Canadiens ont les voitures les plus grosses et les plus énergivores au monde, The Conversation Canada, May 13, 2019
When it comes to vehicles, Canada tops the charts for poor fuel economy, The Conversation Canada, May 9, 2019
Redwater decision is progress, but environmental liabilities run deep, Globe and Mail, Feb 4, 2019 (with Simon Dyer and Chris Ragan)
Canada’s new large-emitter pricing system might defeat the carbon tax’s own purpose, Maclean’s, Nov 5, 2018
Will LNG Canada increase greenhouse gas emissions?, Maclean’s, Oct 3, 2018
On Policy Durability, The Hill Times, Aug 13, 2018 (ungated)
Why John Horgan deserves credit for going ahead with Site C, Maclean’s, Dec 11, 2017
Why the B.C. Liberals and NDP are both wrong about bridge tolls, Maclean’s, Apr 10, 2017
Saskatchewan swallows the fiscal pill Alberta refuses, Maclean’s, Mar 23, 2017 (with Trevor Tombe)
Paying for pipelines: How consumers can end up footing some of the bill, CBC, Feb 9, 2017
Making sense of Alberta’s new energy efficiency program, Maclean’s, Jan 31, 2017 (with Sara Hastings-Simon and Trevor Tombe)
Alberta Electricity: There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear, Calgary Herald, Nov 28, 2016
Carbon tax: The real debate is about how the revenue is used, Globe and Mail, Oct 15, 2016
Making sense of a $15 minimum wage in Alberta, Maclean’s, Jun 30, 2016 (with Trevor Tombe)
Alberta’s climate plan requires serious debate, Globe and Mail, May 27, 2016
Making sense of provincial debt downgrades, Maclean’s, Dec 22, 2015 (with Trevor Tombe)

Recent Posts

Canada’s aging population

Recently released data from Statistics Canada allows us to explore demographic trends in the age make-up of the Canadian population. The trend is clear: Canada is getting old. In this chart-blog, we will take a look at population by age group – both across regions and over time – and how median age has evolved.

Jan 28, 2019 1 min read population, social

Trucks! Trucks! Trucks!

Quick post to show how easy it is to do quick data exploration using R. This post walks us through making a (nice!) chart of new vehicle sales in Canada, breaking it down by vehicle type and region.

Dec 17, 2018 2 min read

Making animated charts with gganimate

What’s better than making charts? Making them animated, of course! While animation isn’t always (ok, rarely) necessary, it can help tell a story static charts can’t. Recently there has been a lot of discussion in Canada related to equalization.

Dec 14, 2018 5 min read

New Statscan data on victims of violent crime in Canada

Statistics Canada recently released new data on victims of violent crime across Canada from 2009 to 2017. In this post, I explore trends in this data by region, age and gender.

Dec 6, 2018 4 min read social

Gasoline demand: BC and the Rest of Canada

This post looks at gasoline demand across the Canadian provinces and territories. It was prompted by this tweet by @sjmuir, noting that gasoline demand per capita in BC is unchanged since 2008, the year of implementation of the BC carbon tax.

Nov 30, 2018 4 min read energy

Experience

Assistant Professor

University of Calgary

Jan 2020 – Present Calgary, Alberta

Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar

Stanford University

Jan 2019 – Aug 2019 Stanford, California

Visiting Scholar

Toulouse School of Economics

Sep 2018 – Dec 2018 Toulouse, France

Policy Advisor (occasional)

Governments of Alberta, British Columbia and Canada

Jan 2016 – Present

Director of Western Trading and Senior Trader

Transalta

Oct 2010 – Jul 2014 Calgary, Alberta

Senior Power Trader

Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers

Jun 2006 – Sep 2010 New York, NY

Manager of Analytics and Power Trader

Powerex Corporation (BC Hydro)

May 1999 – May 2006 Vancouver, BC

Contact

2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4
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