BEAR, Berkeley Economic Advising and Research

Where the BEAR model has been put to work.

Regulations, wage floors, plant closures, data centers, mega-events, housing needs and development finance all run through the same instrument: a dynamic general equilibrium model of the economy, resolved to counties and census tracts. Below is where most of the work has been, not the limit of it.

Data centers and AI

What would a data center pay a city, and what would it cost residents?

Independent fiscal, ratepayer and jobs analysis for cities and counties deciding on data centers, from the economists behind the California ISO’s SB 350 study and the assessment of California’s automated decisionmaking rules.

Regulatory impact (SRIA)

Who prepares SRIAs that hold up in Department of Finance review?

Nine SRIAs on the Department of Finance record since 2016, for six state agencies, on a model calibrated to the DOF baseline.

Wage and labor standards

Which firm does minimum wage studies for California cities?

Wage-floor studies that show who is covered, where they live, and what the policy does to employers, prices and jobs.

Energy facilities and transitions

What happens to a county when a plant or refinery closes?

Closure and extension assessments for power plants and oil production, from statewide output to county jobs and local revenue.

Major events and local revenue

What will a mega-event or a new tax actually bring a city?

Fiscal and visitor-economy analysis built at census-tract resolution, the scale where hotels, venues and workers actually are.

Housing and regional economics

Who should a region hire for a housing and infrastructure needs assessment?

Housing and infrastructure needs assessments from the parcel up, with bilingual community profiles and outreach.

International development

Who models trade, growth and livestock systems for the development banks?

Economywide and sector models, surveys and field programs for the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and FAO in more than twenty countries.

The project index also holds food security studies for FAO and the Asian Development Bank, avian influenza economics for UKaid and FAO, trade projections for the WTO and the ADB Institute, and water and climate risk to agriculture for the World Bank and ADB. If the question is economic, send it.

Methods the work draws on

Beyond the BEAR model itself. Each links to engagements that used it.

Census tracts and GIS

Statewide results carried down to about 8,000 census tracts for the Energy Commission, and parcel and road mapping of Imperial County’s colonias for SCAG.

Econometrics and event studies

Event studies of home prices and municipal bonds around Diablo Canyon for the Public Utilities Commission, and compliance-cost estimation for the California Privacy Protection Agency.

Survey design and fieldwork

SCAG’s Job Quality Index, built on a survey of 2,900 workers, and producer surveys in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Thailand after avian influenza, for FAO.

Public health economics

The cost of tighter occupational lead standards for Cal/OSHA, and the economics of avian influenza and animal disease control for FAO and UKaid.

Transport and logistics

Electronic logging devices for intrastate truck drivers for the Highway Patrol, plug-in electric vehicle deployment in California, and corridor assessments for the ADB’s CAREC program.

Climate risk and adaptation

California Climate Risk and Response for Next 10, climate risk to agriculture in Thailand and Lao PDR for FAO, and water and agriculture in Morocco for the World Bank.

Social accounting and economywide models

The 195-sector model behind the California ISO’s SB 350 study, social accounting matrices for China, and a forecasting model for Mongolia’s National Statistical Office.

Impact evaluation

Impact assessment of rinderpest programs in Chad and India for FAO, and of animal disease across the Greater Mekong.

Infrastructure economics

An economic assessment of a SuperGrid for California for Next 10, and infrastructure investment studies across Asia.

The same method, for the development banks

Before and alongside its California work, BEAR’s principals have modeled trade, growth, livestock systems and carbon pricing for the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and FAO in more than twenty countries, with more than 30 ADB contracts, 12 of them as team leader.

Browse international work

Herder winter camp on the Mongolian steppe, gers and stock enclosures in snow
BEAR fieldwork in Arkhangai, Mongolia, during the ADB livestock traceability programme.

A question that isn’t on this page?

Send the solicitation or the question. BEAR replies to California agency enquiries the same week.