This study examines consumer preferences for co-adoption of residential rooftop solar photovoltaic (RPV) systems and electric vehicles (EVs) in California, including factors that influence consumer adoption decisions. Using a contingent-behavior experiment with 1,311 California households, grouped by prior technology adoption ownership. Respondents evaluated hypothetical EVs or RPVs contracts, depending on their adoption status. A fractional logistic regression model was applied to assess co-adoption decisions. Results show that EV owners are more likely to adopt RPV systems, and RPV owners are more likely to adopt EVs. RPV or EV adoption is more likely among wealthier, male, liberals, larger, and Democratic households, with EV adoption also among younger, Asian, and medium-income respondents. EV adoption preference declines as costs increase (similar for RPVs), charging time increases, and driving range decreases. These results clarify households’ preferences and the factors driving co-adoption, providing guidance for policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

Residential solar energy installations are a critical component of the energy transition. Nonetheless, just a small fraction of all eligible households have installed solar panels. We investigate household willingness to pay (WTP) for a residential rooftop solar system using a stated preference approach and including socio-demographic, ideological, economic, and psychological factors.We implemented an online survey of 580 households in New York State who had not previously adopted a residential solar system. Respondents were presented with hypothetical PV systems with varying upfront costs and monthly savings that allow us to understand discount rates and payoff preferences. This allowed us to explore not only WTP and how it varies across the factors described above, but also how those factors affect discount rates and attitudes towards uncertain future payoffs from the systems. We limit our analysis to New York to control for variation in solar adoption policies from state to state, but these results are broadly generalizable to other US States and, with caveats, to advanced industrialized democracies.We find an average WTP of $7388.5 for installing a residential rooftop solar system. Respondents' WTP is $11.66 in upfront costs for each additional $1 of average monthly savings. We also find substantial heterogeneity in WTP and in trade-offs between upfront costs versus savings. Age, children in households, income, education, motivation, and ideology are all independent factors associated with WTP. We discuss a range of implications for policy and marketing to further increase rates of adoption in the future.

Although a small body of research has examined the motivational foundations of homeowners' decisions to adopt rooftop solar panels, in this research we compared adoptive and non-adoptive homeowners in the United States (N = 824) across a spectrum of values and motives to identify the most salient predictors of solar adoption within various demographic and political strata. Results of hierarchical logistic regressions revealed that autonomous (i. e., internal) pro-environmental motivation linked to solar adoption regardless of age, income, and education. In contrast, the effects of altruism and controlled (i.e., image and status based) environmental motivation depended on demographic characteristics. That is, altruism was positively associated with adoption for older homeowners, but negatively linked to adoption for younger homeowners. Additionally, controlled motivation predicted solar adoption for both younger and higher income homeowners, but it was not a predictor for older and lower income homeowners. We highlight the importance of assessing interactions between demographics, on one hand, and motives and values, on the other, in order to reveal nuances in the motivations of different types of adopters. These findings underscore the need for more targeted solar policy, marketing, and public messaging.

We describe new data on diversity within the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE), with a focus on association membership and publication in the association’s flagship journal, the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (JAERE). We use these data to provide an update on the status of women in AERE and to extend the scope of diversity measures to describe the professional position, employer, alma mater, degree year, and degree country of JAERE authors. We find that AERE’s female membership share was approximately 29 percent in 2020. Compared with membership, women served in AERE leadership roles at higher rates and accounted for a smaller share of JAERE authors. In terms of international diversity, 72 percent of JAERE authors were employed in the United States, 78 percent of authors with PhDs earned their degrees from US schools, and 15 percent of authors obtained undergraduate degrees from schools outside the United States, Canada, and the European Union. We also show that 25 percent of JAERE authors were affiliated with 10 employers and 40 percent of authors obtained their highest degrees from 10 schools.

This essay is a review of the hedonic price literature examining the effect of wind power projects on property values. It covers 18 core studies done from 2011 to 2021. The studies include applications in Europe (10) and North America (8). The essay provides detailed tables summarizing the studies' data, methods, and results. It also includes recommendations for future work. Among the 18 core studies 13 find some evidence of net-negative impacts on property values with statistical significance. Of the studies done in Europe, all find net-negative impact. Only three of the eight North American studies find net-negative impact. Over time the studies have trended toward showing net-negative impact. As one might expect, the impacts are larger the closer a property is located to a wind power project. In 1km increments, beginning with less than 1 km, the average impact on property values across all core studies is 5.0%, 4.0%, -2.6%, and -1.2%. In the <1 km range 67% of the studies find net-negative effects. In the 3-4 km range, only 28% find net-negative effects and beyond 4 km effects are uncommon or diminishingly small. The variation of effects across the core studies within each 1 km band is large implying that context matters and transferring mean values requires caution. Among the studies finding net-negative effects on property values, the extent of the effect also tends to increase with the number and height of the turbines. The results are mixed on the effects in rural versus urban areas.

Given the important role that electricity plays in powering society, and the significant risk that extreme weather and other events pose in disrupting electricity supply, the idea of community-scale microgrids has come to the forefront to enhance electrical grid resiliency and provide critical services to local communities during extended outages. In this paper, a discrete choice experiment is used to evaluate willingness to pay (WTP) for services provided by a community microgrid during extended power outages. With a sample of 939 respondents from New York State, results indicate that, overall, there is a positive willingness to pay for microgrid services, including hospital and emergency services, potable water, shelters, and retail outlets; even if residents are not receiving their own residential electricity supply during an outage. The average willingness to pay for the full suite of evaluated microgrid services is approximately $14 per month per household. We also find that WTP varies with some sociodemographic and other characteristics. These results provide critical evidence for rate-makers and utilities in evaluating societal benefit when making investment decisions for microgrids and related infrastructure.

We estimate the effect of 33 derailments involving hazardous materials on property values in New York State between 2004 and 2013. Difference-in-differences analyses show that, on average, a derailment depreciates housing values within a one-mile radius by 5%–8%. The prices of affected properties return to pre-accident levels after about 480 days. In addition, we find that the impacts of derailments on property values are limited to the local area. These results provide evidence for evaluating the economic costs of rail transportation to nearby communities and for considering policy options in the current era of U.S. energy transformation resulting in substantial increases in the rail shipment of fuels.

Using a model of monopolistic competition, we examine the relationship between intra‐industry trade and environmental regulation. The decisions on emission standards set by each country show strong strategic interactions. In closed economies regulations act as strategic substitutes, and in equilibrium there is under‐regulation relative to the cooperative outcome. Trade liberalization may lead to stricter or laxer environmental standards, depending on the consumers’ preference for product variety. In addition, we show that with open trade environmental regulations may act as strategic complements and countries may set environmental standards that are as strict (or stricter) than those in the cooperative outcome.

This paper evaluates the implicit cost of train derailments involving hazardous materials using property values as a metric. We estimate the effect of 33 derailments on property values in New York State between 2004 and 2013. Employing a difference-in-differences (DiD) strategy, we find that, on average, a derailment depreciates housing values by 5% to 7% for properties within one mile of derailment sites. The prices of affected properties return to pre-accident levels after 480 days. In addition, we find that the impacts of derailments on property values are limited to the local area. These results provide empirical evidence for evaluating transportation alternatives and policy options in the current era of U.S. energy transformation resulting in substantial increases in the rail shipment of fuels.

In the State of New York, atmospheric deposition of mercury ranks among the 10 most prevalent causes of adverse impacts on water quality. This paper examines the impacts of mercury pollution by exploring the relationship between property values and fish consumption advisory (FCA) designation on New York lakes. We find that New York State property values within one mile of an FCA-designated lake decrease by 6–7 percent on average. This negative impact decreases as the distance between properties and lakes increases. Regressions using samples derived with Mahalanobis metric matching find an even larger FCA effect, ranging from 7 to 10 percent. Our results can serve as a partial indication of the benefits of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which includes the first mercury emission standard in the United States.

Wind energy developments are often controversial. Concerns are often raised about negative impacts on local communities, including impacts on property values. Some of these negative impacts may be offset by compensatory payments made by wind developers. Community involvement in the planning and development process may also reduce negative perceptions associated with wind facilities. However, if the development is near a border between municipalities, states, or even countries, it is often the case that one or more jurisdictions will not be involved in the process or receive compensation, but will, nonetheless, face some costs or impacts from the development. We explore exactly this situation at the border between Canada and the United States in the Thousand Islands region where a wind farm is currently operating on the Canadian border island of Wolfe Island. Using a parcel-level hedonic analysis of property sales transactions, we find that properties in New York with a view of and/or in close proximity to the turbines significantly depreciated in value after construction of the turbines while no negative impacts were observed on properties in Ontario. We highlight a number of factors that could contribute to these differences in impacts on property values, which may also explain the variation in results that currently exists in the literature.

Fracking is a controversial practice but is thriving in many areas. We combine a comprehensive data set on local bans and moratoria in the state of New York with local-level census data and spatial characteristics in a spatial econometric analysis of local fracking policies. Some factors, including location in the Utica shale, proportion of registered Democrats, and education level, increase the probability of restrictions on fracking. Extent of local land development, location in highly productive petroleum areas, and number of extant oil and gas wells are among factors that have a negative impact on the likelihood of a ban or moratorium.

Floods cause billions of dollars in property damages each year in the United States. While programs like flood insurance and disaster relief help to lessen the burden on those harmed, they do nothing to mitigate the severity of floods. Wetlands have a natural ability to mitigate the impacts of flooding through the slowing of runoff and absorption of excess rainwater. For this purpose they are inherently valuable. This study implements a hedonic analysis to study the complicated interactions between property values, wetlands, and flood risk using detailed property transaction data in the Hudson River Valley of New York State. We augment this analysis with GIS data including FEMA flood risk maps, the location of wetlands and other land uses, and various geographic layers. We find, as expected, that higher levels of flood risk, as well as the realization of actual flooding events, negatively impact property values. We also find that the presence of wetlands mitigates the negative effect of floods to properties in flood zones, which is likely due to a reduced severity of damages. The magnitudes of these effects suggest that wetlands provide considerable benefits to property owners and the results provide a partial benefit measure for policymakers, especially to state and federal programs, such as the USDA’s wetlands and conservation reserve programs whose primary aim is to preserve and restore these natural buffers.

The Adirondack Park contains over 6 million acres and over 3,000 lakes. Approximately 43% of the Park is publicly owned and protected to remain “forever wild?. Despite regulatory measures aimed at protecting the natural resources of the Adirondacks, surface water quality is threatened by acid and mercury deposition. This paper uses data on 12,001 property transactions over 9 years in the 12 counties that comprise the Adirondack Park to explore how property owners value lake water quality using fixed effects hedonic analysis. We find that multiple measures of water quality have significant effects on property values including lake acidity, the presence of water milfoil, an invasive species, and the presence of loons, an indicator species. This research provides valuable insight into how water quality and associated ecosystem health are capitalized into property values. Moreover, this research helps partially quantify air pollution impacts on Adirondack property values and could be used to justify additional regulations to further restrict sulfur and mercury emissions which are negatively impacting the Park.

Purpose– This paper aims to examine how participation in varsity athletics during college affects career success in the first decade after graduation. The paper predicted that student-athletes would develop greater mentoring skills and emotional intelligence, leading to higher starting salaries as they enter the professional workforce and faster rates of salary growth as their careers progress.Design/methodology/approach– Cross-sectional nationwide survey study.Findings– The paper finds that former collegiate athletes score higher on measures of mentoring and emotional intelligence and have higher salaries through the first ten years of their careers than their non-athlete counterparts. The paper also finds that there are significant interaction effects for gender, such that male athletes score higher than male non-athletes on measures of mentoring and emotional intelligence, while female athletes score the same as non-athletes on these measures. Gender also impacted salary differences, such that at the start of their careers, female student-athletes enjoyed a significant salary boost relative to male athletes and both male and female non-athletes, but saw this advantage decrease within five years and disappear altogether by the time they had worked ten years.Originality/value– This study highlights the ways in which participation in collegiate sports affects student-athletes, and how these effects differ for men and women. These findings are worthy of continued investigation and should encourage scholars to question how activities beyond the classroom might affect students' preparation for life and careers after college.

To guard against urban sprawl, many communities in the United States have begun enacting policies to preserve open space, often through local voter referenda. New Jersey sponsors such municipal action through the Green Acres Program by providing funding and low interest loans to towns that choose, through a referendum, to increase property taxes and spend the money raised on open space preservation for the purposes of conservation and/or recreation. Understanding which factors contribute to the appearance and success of these measures is important for policy makers and conservation advocates, not only in New Jersey, but across the United States. Although previous literature has examined this issue, this is the first study to account for spatial dependence/spatial autocorrelation and to explore dynamic issues through survival analysis. The traditional two stage model from the literature is extended by incorporating a Bayesian spatial probit for the first stage and a maximum-likelihood spatial error model in the second stage. A Cox – proportional hazard model is used to examine the timing of referenda appearance. Spatial dependence is found in the second stage of the analysis, indicating future studies should account for its influence. There is not strong evidence for spatial dependence or correlation in the first stage. The survival model is found to be a useful complement to the traditional probit analysis of the first stage.

This research examines how participation in varsity athletics during college affects career success in the first decade after graduation. We predicted that student-athletes would develop greater teamwork and relationship management skills, leading to higher starting salaries as they enter the professional workforce and faster rates of salary growth as their careers progress. In a cross-sectional nationwide study, we find that former collegiate athletes score higher on measures of mentoring reception, mentoring others, and emotional intelligence and have higher salaries through the first ten years of their careers than their non-athlete counterparts. We also find that there are significant interaction effects for gender, such that male athletes score higher than male non-athletes on mentoring reception, mentoring others, and emotional intelligence, while female athletes score the same as non-athletes on these measures. Gender also impacted salary differences, such that female student-athletes enjoyed a significant salary boost relative to men and female non-athletes at the start of their careers, but saw this advantage decrease within five years and disappear altogether by the time they had worked ten years. We discuss the implications of these results for both theory and practice.