“Settlers of Barnett: Dynamics of Leasing in Oil and Gas”
The next presentation in the Texas A&M Energy Institute Lecture Series, featuring Dr. Anastasia Shcherbakova, an assistant professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University, will be held on Monday, December 4, 2017 from 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. in the Frederick E. Giesecke Engineering Research Building (GERB) Third Floor Conference Room.
Abstract
The economic and management literature has much to say about how firms compete in the production of natural resources. Competition for the right to produce natural resources, however, has not been studied outside of an auction environment. In this study, we fill this knowledge gap by examining how firms compete in the market for private mineral leases across space and time. We begin by describing how companies’ objectives and constraints lead them to form their initial leasing strategies. Next, we draw on evolutionary game theory and spatial competition models to describe how these initial strategies evolve over time, as firms gain information and experience. Finally, we identify four economically and financially rational leasing strategies that companies can pursue and use data to test empirically which of these strategies companies favor and how their strategic preference change over time.
Biography
Anastasia Shcherbakova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University. Professor Shcherbakova is an applied economist with expertise in economics, regulation, and policy of energy and natural resource markets. Her research on electricity, renewables, and oil and gas markets has been published in a number of peer-reviewed energy, environmental, and economic journals. Professor Shcherbakova holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and has held previous academic appointments at Penn State University and the University of Texas at Dallas.
