Research

Job Market Paper

“The Welfare Effects of Air Pollution on Outdoor Recreation: An Application to Shoreline Fishing Along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts” [Link] 

Driven by tighter federal PM2.5 standards as well as cleaner fuel requirements for maritime shipping, the past two decades have seen dramatic improvements in air quality in coastal areas throughout the United States. However, the implications of these improvements for outdoor recreation, a large and growing sector of many coastal economies, remain poorly understood. Leveraging one of the largest outdoor recreation data sets ever assemble, we investigate how changes in air pollution along the East and Gulf Coasts impacted shoreline recreational fishing between 2004 and 2018. Using a linked model of angler participation and site choice, our findings suggest a robustly negative and statistically significant relationship between PM2.5 and shoreline recreational fishing. These estimates translate into relatively large welfare gains from the improvements in air pollution experienced in recent years. Further, our results reveal substantial spatial heterogeneity across the U.S., with anglers in the Southeast and New England/Mid-Atlantic regions deriving the highest economic values. Sensitivity analyses suggest that our estimates are robust to the inclusion of nonlinear income and air pollution effects as well as alternative
distributional assumptions.

Working Papers

“Adaptation to Climate Change: Evidence from Shoreline Recreational Fishing Activities Using a Medium Difference Approach” with Roger H. von Haefen

“Zonal Travel Cost Models: A Comprehensive Review and Interpretative Appraisal” with Roger H. von Haefen