I am a Ph.D. candidate in economics and environmental science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

My research investigates how environmental change and policies shape and is shaped by patterns of social and economic inequalities. My recent projects have been centered on equity issues arising from water scarcity in California.

I will be on the job market in AY 2024-2025.

Email: sandysum@ucsb.edu

Advisor: Tamma Carleton

Committee: Chris Costello, Olivier Deschênes, Kyle Meng

Working papers

Distributional Implications of Environmental Markets: Insights from California Groundwater

Sandy Sum (Job Market Paper, 2024)

Parameter recovery with remotely sensed variables

Jonathan Proctor*, Tamma Carleton*, and Sandy Sum* (Under review, 2024)

Publications

Impact of Droughts on Served Drinking Water Disparities in California, 2007-2020

Sandy Sum (American Journal of Public Health, 2024)

Well setbacks limit California’s oil supply with larger health benefits and employment losses than excise and carbon taxes

with emLab (June 2023)
Policy Brief, Nature Energy

Equitable low-carbon transition pathways for California’s oil extraction

with emLab (May 2023)
Nature Energy

Policy reports

Enhancing equity while eliminating emissions in California’s supply of transportation fuels

CalEPA report with emLab (2021)