You might wonder what Antonio Bento, an economist, is doing at a school of public policy.
Answer: He wants his research to have an impact on policy.
And it has.
In 2018, Bento was the lead author of an article in Science titled “Flawed analyses of US auto fuel economy standard” that took the Trump administration to task for a proposal to freeze fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks, instead of gradually increasing them to lower emissions. Bento’s study noted that the Trump administration had failed to account for $112 billion in benefits from maintaining more aggressive standards set by the Obama administration.
Bento, who is a professor of public policy and economics at the USC Price School of Public Policy, followed up by testifying before Congress to press his point.
“This is an insane rollback from the perspective of the future competitiveness of the U.S. auto industry,” Bento was quoted in Newsweek. “It makes us less and less competitive internationally, and down the road we would lose the share of the international market we would otherwise have if we were to move towards car electrification.”
Although the Trump administration ended up weakening the fuel standards in March 2020, it did not freeze them. More aggressive standards were implemented during the Biden presidency, including new rules issued this month that is meant to push the average efficiency of new vehicles beyond 50 miles per gallon by 2031.
“I’m very proud because I felt that that paper and our testimony in the House was a good input into stopping what otherwise would’ve been a disastrous policy reform,” Bento said.