Trashed
Does Pollution Drive Achievement? The Effect of Traffic Pollution on Academic Performance
Jennifer Heissel, Claudia Persico & David Simon
NBER Working Paper, January 2019
Abstract:
We examine the effect of school traffic pollution on student outcomes by leveraging variation in wind patterns for schools the same distance from major highways. We compare within-student achievement for students transitioning between schools near highways, where one school has had greater levels of pollution because it is downwind of a highway. Students who move from an elementary/middle school that feeds into a “downwind” middle/high school in the same zip code experience decreases in test scores, more behavioral incidents, and more absences, relative to when they transition to an upwind school. Even within zip codes, microclimates can contribute to inequality.
Does Higher Energy Efficiency Lower Economy-Wide Energy Use?
Sebastian Rausch & Hagen Schwerin
International Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We develop a general equilibrium growth model with capital and energy use to examine the hypothesis that economy‐wide energy use increases with energy efficiency. To obtain energy use that would have occurred in the absence of energy efficiency changes, chosen energy efficiency is induced by technological change. Calibrating the model to the post‐WWII U.S. economy, we find that higher energy efficiency increased rather than reduced energy use, because lower capital cost enhanced energy use by more than the increase in energy cost reduced it. This casts strong doubts on the view that energy‐saving technological change has lowered fossil energy use.
The psychological contamination of pro-environmental consensus: Political pressure for environmental belief agreement undermines its long-term power
Lucian Gideon Conway & Meredith Repke
Journal of Environmental Psychology, April 2019, Pages 12-21
Abstract:
Is political pressure effective at producing pro-environmental action? While political pressure can have benefits, it may also sow the seeds for long-term backlash because it psychologically contaminates any emerging consensus. Three studies demonstrate the value of considering this psychological contamination perspective across three different environmental domains. Study 1 (n = 151) demonstrated that psychological contamination about climate science is a unique predictor of the likelihood of supporting both governmental and civilian action about climate change. Studies 2 (n = 302) and 3 (n = 351) used experimental scenarios to test psychological contamination's indirect role in the political pressure→contamination→rejection of governmental action chain. Using rainforest protection (Study 2) and recycling (Study 3), results provide support for the hypothesis that political pressure increases psychological contamination, which in turn decreases support for governmental action. We discuss implications of these findings for understanding Americans' lukewarm attitudes towards climate change action, and the ultimate success of pro-environmental policies more broadly.
Are Consumers Attentive to Local Energy Costs? Evidence from the Appliance Market
Sébastien Houde & Erica Myers
NBER Working Paper, February 2019
Abstract:
We estimate whether consumers respond to local energy costs when purchasing appliances. Using a dataset from an appliance retailer, we compare demand responsiveness to a measure of energy costs that varies with local energy prices versus purchase prices. We strongly reject that consumers are unresponsive to local energy costs under a wide range of assumptions. These findings run counter to the popular wisdom, which motivates energy standards, that energy costs are a shrouded attribute. Capital investments are an important channel for electricity demand response and may explain some of the large differences between short and long run electricity price elasticities.
Do Air Quality Alerts Affect Household Migration?
Bongkyun Kim
Southern Economic Journal, January 2019, Pages 766-795
Abstract:
This article examines the effect of air quality information on immigration and emigration of households in California counties by measuring the change in the number of air quality alert days. Based on panel data for 2000–2014, I find evidence suggesting that more frequent air quality alerts reduce the rate of population growth in a county by decreasing immigration of households. This is driven by “Unhealthy” air alerts, which signals weaker air quality than “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.” The negative impacts on immigration are larger for high household income counties and are strongest when there is a sharp increase in the number of air quality alerts.
The Effects of Clean Water Act Enforcement on Environmental Employment
Zach Raff & Dietrich Earnhart
Resource and Energy Economics, August 2019, Pages 1-17
Abstract:
This study explores the effects of environmental enforcement on the amount of environmental labor employed by facilities regulated under the U.S. Clean Water Act. The study uses panel data from a unique survey of chemical manufacturing facilities operating between 1999 and 2001. Specifically, the analysis examines the influence of monitoring inspections and enforcement actions, e.g., fines, on the number of employees allocated to environmental management. Empirical results show that environmental enforcement negatively affects the amount of environmental labor allocated by the sampled facilities. Specifically, increases in federal inspections, informal enforcement actions, and monetary fines each lower environmental employment. Extended model results provide evidence that these negative effects stem from the crowding out of facility managers’ intrinsic motivations.
Political Polarization and Long-Term Change in Public Support for Environmental Spending
Erik Johnson & Philip Schwadel
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
Public support for environmental protection has evinced declines in recent years that are widely attributed to growing antipathy among self-identified Republicans. Fractures in what was long considered broad and enduring support for the environment in the United States have called attention to the broader socio-political context in which individual opinion on the environment is formed, and especially the role of political parties and their leaders in shaping opinion. Empirical analyses of environmental support, however, remain strongly focused on individual-level correlates of support. We apply recent methodological advances in age-period-cohort models to scrutinize changes in Americans’ willingness to pay more for environmental protection between 1973 and 2014. Analyses distinguish the importance of individual traits, such as political identification, from cohort and especially period-based fluctuations that result from changing economic and political conditions. Individual-level covariate results are reflective of previous research on environmental opinion (e.g., age is negatively and education positively associated with environmental support). We further find that political context across time periods matters as much as, and interacts with, individual political affiliation to influence support for the environment. Americans of all political stripes demonstrate decreases in support for environmental spending during Democratic presidential administrations and during difficult economic times. Declines during Democratic presidencies are especially pronounced among Republicans. Analyses also highlight parallels between the high levels of political polarization in environmental support found at the end of the Obama Presidency and the end of the Carter era.
Quick learning, quick capture: Largemouth bass that rapidly learn an association task are more likely to be captured by recreational anglers
Michael Louison et al.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, February 2019
Abstract:
Individuals show consistent differences in their approach to novel tasks (i.e., “cognitive syndromes”), whereby “fast” individuals are bold and solve new problems quickly compared to “slow” individuals. While a “fast” approach can be advantageous in some situations, these individuals are often more likely to make mistakes and subject themselves to greater risk, including from predation. What is unknown is how these tendencies impact survival in environments where humans constitute a predatory risk (such as the case of fish targeted by commercial or recreational fishing). To address this gap, we assessed learning performance in 60 largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides using an active-avoidance task that required fish to learn to associate a conditioned stimulus (overhead light) with an unconditioned aversive stimulus (chasing with a net) to successfully shuttle through a small opening to a safe area of an aquarium. These same fish were also tested for proactivity in a restraint test (frequency of leaping to escape a net out of water) before being subjected to angling trials in a naturalistic pond setting. Performance on the active-avoidance task was positively associated with angling vulnerability, as individuals captured by anglers also successfully shuttled on nearly twice as many trials as uncaptured fish. Proactivity was not associated with angling vulnerability or learning performance. These results indicate that a fast cognitive strategy may be maladaptive for fish populations subjected to angling. In addition, because cognitive performance is heritable, fisheries selection based on cognitive traits could cause an evolutionary shift toward slow learning strategies in exploited populations.
Seismic risk and house prices: Evidence from earthquake fault zoning
Singh Ruchi
Regional Science and Urban Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
In 1972, the Alquist-Priolo Zoning Act provided for the publication of earthquake fault maps in California. I exploit revisions in these official maps over time to estimate the rate of capitalization of seismic risk into property values using a difference-in-differences framework. Using geographically consistent data from 1970 to 2010 at the census tract level, I find that on average property values decline by 6.6 percent after the delineation of the fault zone, while rents decline by around 3.3 percent. I also examine the risk gradient and heterogeneity in willingness to pay using individual sales transactions, assessors' records, and publicly available mortgage data for the City of Los Angeles. The analysis of micro transactions data from 1997 to 2016 reveals that, on average, house prices increase by 1.8 percent for a one-mile increase in distance from the fault zone. The evidence also indicates that holding income and gender constant, Blacks and Hispanics are less willing than Whites to trade other forms of consumption to avoid earthquake risk.
Earthquake-Risk Salience and Housing Prices: Evidence from California
Amir Fekrazad
Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, February 2019, Pages 104-113
Abstract:
I investigate the hypothesis that earthquake-risk salience increases in a housing market in response to the news of out-of-the-market earthquakes, which subsequently leads to an increase in price differential between low-risk and high-risk areas within the market. Using data on 20 years of worldwide earthquake occurrences and California housing prices, I find that both home value index and median listing price decrease by approximately 6% and 3% respectively in California zip codes with high seismic hazard (relative to those with low seismic hazard) after high-casualty earthquakes occur outside of California. Additionally, I show that a) the higher an earthquake’s death toll, the larger the increase in the price differential; b) an earthquake in Europe has a significantly larger impact on California’s price differential than a similarly deadly earthquake in another region; and c) the effects are transient and dissipate one month after the earthquake occurs. The results are robust to various specifications and multiple robustness checks.
Spillover Effects of State Regulated Corporate Disclosures on the Mortgage Market
Kirti Sinha
Northwestern University Working Paper, October 2018
Abstract:
I investigate the spillover effects of disclosure requirements imposed by state governments on oil and gas companies operating in the state. Recently, several state governments have begun requiring companies to publicly disclose information about chemicals used in their fracking operations. The chemicals can result in land and water contamination, thereby creating uncertainty about property values near fracking operations. I hypothesize and find that the disclosure mandate reduces uncertainty about property values and subsequently increases mortgage lending activity, i.e., probability of obtaining a mortgage and loan-to-value by 2.6 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. My analyses exploit the staggered adoption of disclosure regulations across states as well as variation in the location of properties relative to fracking wells. I conduct cross-sectional tests based on property characteristics (e.g., drinking water source, lender type) and the content of the information disclosed to further substantiate my inference that disclosures related to fracking chemicals facilitate mortgage lending activity. Finally, I find that fracking chemical disclosures decrease the variance in property prices, suggesting that a reduction in uncertainty about collateral value is the mechanism through which these disclosures affect mortgage lending. My results highlight the value of information disclosed by one sector of the economy for economic activity in different sector of the economy.