1510510 (Moreno-Cruz). Understanding of how regional economic activities and energy use interact with each other is incomplete. We need to better understand these interactions to be able to develop a more sustainable economy. In previous work, an industrial structure-based indicator for regional economic resilience was developed that is especially suited for large-scale inter-region comparison. In addition, how the historical evolvement of regional industrial structure causes change in regional energy consumption patterns was investigated. Particularly, the roles that different economic sectors have played in shaping regional energy consumption pattern were identified. Finally, a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to investigate economy-wide energy rebound effects and other economic impacts resulting from increased energy efficiency was developed. The current project will 1) comprehensively evaluate the economic impact and the rebound effect of increased energy efficiency (e.g., energy use for lighting has increased with every increase in lighting efficiency) by introducing the concept of structural adjustment cost (SAC) into the CGE model; 2) investigate how the impact of an energy efficiency shock diffuses through the entire economic system accounting for industry interaction; 3) compare the heterogeneous impact of the same shock on states with different resilience rankings.
Introducing SACs will allow a more realistic evaluation of how an economy responds to energy efficiency shocks. SACs characterize the difficulty that an industry faces when trying to adjust the quantity of intermediate inputs from another industry. Also, how the impact of an exogenous shock permeates through the entire economy will be tracked. Given the assumption of increased energy efficiency, the CGE model will estimate change in the production scale of an economy's industries. This change will be projected onto the industrial structure network developed earlier. A third step emphasizes horizontal comparison across states. Based on previous comparative analysis results, states of different resilience levels will be selected. The same energy efficiency shock will generate different economy-wide impacts on these states in terms of GDP, industrial structure, energy price, energy production and consumption, etc. These simulations will reveal how various segments of an economy respond to external shocks, and how "resilience" manifests itself through this process. To broaden the impact of the research, a participatory game for students will be developed anchored in rich scenario based narratives and underpinned by a simplified version of the CGE model. Additionally, workshops will be held for African American high school students in collaboration with Georgia Tech's Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing, and involve African American undergraduate research assistants (RAs) will be involved in the project and encouraged to participate as RAs in the field of sustainability.
