Collaborative Research: Productivity, Efficiency, and Distortions in the U.S. Shale Boom

水力压裂和水平钻井(水力压裂)生产率的广泛提高极大地重塑了美国能源市场，释放了近1万亿美元以前不经济的页岩油气储量。该项目开发了一个详细的数据库，将美国的矿产租赁和油井水平的钻探和生产数据联系起来。然后，该项目使用该数据库来记录美国页岩业务生产率增长的原因，并衡量进一步提高效率的障碍。这项研究考察了公司是如何？经济和合同环境决定了石油和天然气的生产率和资源配置。通过综合多个美国页岩业的证据，该项目将提供第一个大规模证据，证明该行业效率的变化如何影响美国石油和天然气市场。此外，该数据库的建设是一项宝贵的贡献，极大地便利了未来的研究人员进入美国石油和天然气行业的实证工作。第一项研究将量化矿产租赁中的合同特征所造成的经济扭曲。矿产租赁是石油和天然气公司与私人土地所有者之间的协议。这项研究研究了矿产租约中的主要条款和特许权使用费条款如何影响公司？钻探决策和衡量其对碳氢化合物供应的综合影响。第二项研究将衡量石油和天然气价格涨跌对生产率增长的影响。许多业内人士辩称，由于人力资本从日常钻探活动中解放出来，在泡沫破裂期间，生产率的提高是最大的。这一论点与标准模型背道而驰，在标准模型中，生产率的提高是最有价值的，因此在价格高企时才会进行。该项目将为页岩行业何时出现生产率大幅提高提供首个经验证据。第三项研究将探索美国页岩业务中公司规模的广泛分布，这表明不同公司在生产率方面存在重要差异，以及矿产资产配置不当的空间。这项研究将衡量企业和地块的生产率，然后描述低效配置产生并持续存在的条件。总体而言，这些项目将提高对整个经济的生产率和错配的认识。石油和天然气行业为研究这些问题提供了一个理想的环境，因为关于投资和投资结果的数据都可以在个人投资层面上获得。此外，将有关钻探、完井和生产的信息与矿物租约联系起来的数据库允许在这种设置中进行识别。-*该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Widespread improvements in the productivity of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling (fracking) have dramatically reshaped U.S. energy markets, unlocking nearly $1 trillion of previously uneconomic shale oil and gas reserves. This project develops a detailed database that links data on mineral leases and well-level drilling and production in the U.S. The project then uses this database to document the causes of productivity growth in the U.S. shale business and measure barriers to further improvements in efficiency. This research examines how firms? economic and contractual environment shapes oil and gas productivity and resource allocation. By combining evidence across multiple U.S. shale plays, the project will provide the first large-scale evidence of how changes in the efficiency of the industry have affected U.S. oil and gas markets. Moreover, the construction of the database is a valuable contribution that substantially facilitates the entry of future researchers into empirical work on the U.S. oil and gas industry. The first study will quantify the economic distortions generated by contractual features in mineral leases, which are agreements between oil and gas firms and private landowners. This research studies how primary term and royalty clauses in mineral leases affect firms? drilling decisions and measures their aggregate impact on hydrocarbon supply. The second study will measure the effect of oil and gas price booms and busts on productivity growth. Many industry participants argue that productivity improvements are greatest during a bust, due to the freeing up of human capital from day-to-day drilling activity. This argument runs counter to standard models in which productivity improvements are most valuable and therefore undertaken when prices are high. This project will provide the first empirical evidence as to when large productivity improvements occur in the shale industry. The third study will explore the wide distribution of firm size in U.S. shale business, which is suggestive of important differences across firms in productivity, and the scope for misallocation of mineral assets. This study will measure the productivity of firms and parcels and then characterize the conditions under which inefficient allocations are generated and persist. Overall, these projects will advance the knowledge on economy-wide productivity and misallocation. The oil and gas industry provide an ideal setting to study these questions because data on both investment and investment outcomes are available at the level of the individual investment. Further, the database linking information on drilling, completions, and production to mineral leases allow for identification in this setting. ---*This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.