About
Hello!
I conduct research applying microeconomic theory to energy economics, especially for the design of climate change mitigation and economic development policy.
I use game theory, networks, spatial, data science, and empirical industrial organization tools in my research.
I am a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Calgary.
I got my PhD in Sustainable Development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Curriculum Vitae (Last Updated: October 2026)
Email: eugene.tan@columbia.edu
Job Market Paper
Abstract (click to expand): Utilities expanding their networks to connect new users typically charge them either a flat fee or a distance-based connection charge. Under the latter, the first user to connect in a neighborhood funds a network extension that lowers their neighbors' connection charges. This externality creates a dynamic private provision game in which neighbors have strategic incentives both to coordinate and share infrastructure costs, and to delay adoption to free-ride on a neighbor's anticipated extension. I reconstruct the expansion of 177 electricity distribution networks in rural Rwanda. Using their evolving geography, I measure and instrument anticipated reductions in distance to grid to estimate how strategic incentives affect adoption and cost incidence. Anticipating a 10% reduction in distance to the grid over the next eight weeks lowers the weekly probability of connecting by 0.91 percentage points, providing evidence of strategic delay. Among neighbors who connect within eight weeks of each other, the share connecting jointly rises from 32% to as much as 81% as they share more infrastructure. Customers with higher willingness to pay choose to connect earlier and pay higher charges, generating an elasticity of realized connection charges to willingness to pay of up to 0.24. Distance-based connection charges therefore create competing incentives for strategic delay and cooperation, while inducing endogenous price discrimination through the order in which customers choose to connect.
Teaching
As Acting Instructor, Columbia SIPA
Economics of Energy (Extraordinary Teaching Award)
As Teaching Assistant, Columbia SIPA
Climate Change Politics and Diplomacy (3x)
Advanced Economic Development
Earth Systems and Environmental Politics
Intermediate Microeconomics
Empirical Analysis of Energy Markets
As Teaching Fellow, Yale University
Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations (2x)
As Teaching Assistant, Colorado College
Air: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Energy: Energetics and Thermodynamics
Miscellaneous
Here is a picture of the best girl ever.
This website design is based on Gautam Rao’s.
