We consider private provision of an environmental public good and the link between voluntary pollution-abatement markets and the optimal level of mandatory environmental regulation. We show that voluntary abatement markets react to the level of mandatory abatement imposed and that an optimal...

How much are consumers willing to pay to signal their environmental consciousness? We identify the signaling value of an environmental public good by focusing on hybrid cars and exploiting the physical uniqueness of the Toyota Prius relative to hybrids that look identical to their non-hybrid...

Using a unique dataset for Indiana counties during the period 1995-2012, we estimate the effects of flood hazard, asset exposure, and social vulnerability on property damage. This relationship then is combined with the expected level of future flood risks to project property damage from flooding...

Previous work on the growth and location of communities has analyzed only one aspect of community growth at a time, either the location, growth, or birth of settlements. We use these three descriptive aspects of settlements to create a story that addresses when communities were created, where...

Policies that aim to mitigate water pollution from fertilizer use in agriculture include input-based and output-based policies. Both cost-effectiveness and the speed for policies to take effect are important for policy assessment. In this study, we found that fertilizer price policies cannot...

In 2005, the Responsible Care (RC) program implemented a major structural change that mandated independent third party certification for all participants. The goal of this paper is to explore whether the introduction of mandatory third party certification has reduced accidents in RC facilities...

Empirical economic research typically uses education as a proxy for human capital. However, research aimed at validating the inclusion of education measures in growth regressions has yet to reach a consensus, often finding that the sign and significance of education depends on the sample of...