Job Market Paper
"The Equilibrium Effects of Wildfires: Evidence from the California Housing Market"Draft coming soon Most recent slides
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Increased wildfire frequency coupled with development in the wildland-urban interface has recently resulted in some of the most destructive wildfires in California’s history. This paper looks at the equilibrium effects of wildfire exposure in the context of the housing market. Unlike other commonly studied environmental goods in hedonic work, wildfires directly impact the supply of housing which makes the effect of exposure unclear. I estimate the effect of wildfire exposure on housing prices using 20 years of California housing transactions and wildfire data. Prices for properties within the fire perimeter decline severely and face the largest drop of 54.7% 8 months after the fire. However, this effect isn’t permanent, and prices recover to pre-fire levels 3 years after the fire. Large declines in prices of undamaged properties within the fire signal that physical damage isn’t the only factor driving prices down but also worsening local neighborhood quality which lowers demand. These indirect impacts result in substantial indirect costs. Moreover, residential building permit issuances spike immediately after the fire and signal an improvement in housing quality. Local amenity quality also improves which drives demand for the impacted neighborhood helping prices to recover. Based on the changes in prices after fire exposure, wildfires impact housing markets primarily through changing demand.
Working Papers
"Confronting Censoring Issues in Cellphone Mobility Data for Recreation Demand Models: Application to NY State Parks" (with Gemma Del Rossi, Hocheol Jeon, Yongjie Ji, Catherine Kling, Ivan Rudik, and Wendong Zhang)Click for abstract
Abstract coming soon
"Salary Salience and Pay Transparency for (Prospective) Doctoral Students and Programs" (with Kevin Kniffin, Drew Hanks, Wendy Stock, and Bruce A. Weinberg)
Click for abstract
Abstract coming soon
Work in Progress
"Converging Crises: Understanding the Impact of Climate Change and Violence on Migration in Mexico" (with Anthony Ponce and Dana Smith)Click for abstract
Abstract coming soon
"Evaluating Public Spaces for Climate Adaptation: Evidence from Urban Cooling Centers"
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Extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent because of climate change. These temperatures can have adverse effects on human health. Individual ability to adapt to these extreme temperatures varies over both space and demographics. If publicly available infrastructure is accessible, it can help to mitigate climate damages for a larger portion of the population. In this work, focus on government-designated cooling centers in Los Angeles County. Using administrative data on heat warnings and cooling center locations in conjunction with cell-phone mobility data, I estimate the effect of heat warnings on urban cooling center usage. On average, visitation to cooling centers doesn't change in times of high heat. However, the share of Android users increases which signals a potential change in the composition of people using the centers. Possible reasons for no increase in usage include a lack of information, high travel costs, and restrictions to entrance. Current work employs a travel cost model to explore if high travel costs are prohibiting usage and whether these centers are used and valued heterogeneously across space.