Justin Larson

Justin Larson is an environmental and energy economist in RTI’s International Development Group. He currently serves two roles on the Power Africa Off-grid Project, first as lead of the PAOP health component and as the Power Africa Coordinator's Office Technical Advisor, where he acts as a technical liaison between the project and the coordinator's office, leads the research activities on the project, and provides analytical services to support activities through the project team.

Dr. Larson has unique expertise in estimation of treatment (policy) effects and policy evaluation, especially as it pertains to the electric power industry. Additionally, Dr. Larson’s research experience and interests include:

• agricultural economics (e.g., estimating the propensity to adopt crop insurance in Senegal)
• applied macroeconomics (e.g., modeling international trade flows)
• oil and gas markets (e.g., estimating global rebound effects of U.S. retail fuel policies)
• innovation economics (e.g., analyzing technology adoption in nascent markets),
• energy access in developing countries, and
• the nexuses of health and energy and agriculture and energy (e.g., geospatial analysis of off-grid solar pumping of groundwater for irrigation potential in Ethiopia).

Dr. Larson has also completed projects or research collaborations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (including the Climate Change Division, the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, the Office of Research and Development, and the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards) and the National Institute of Health’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.