Partisan Residential Sorting on Climate Change Risk

Asaf Bernstein, Stephen Billings, Matthew Gustafson and Ryan Lewis

No 27989, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Is climate change partisanship reflected in residential decisions? Comparing individual properties in the same zip code with similar elevation and proximity to the coast, houses exposed to sea level rise (SLR) are increasingly more likely to be owned by Republicans and less likely to be owned by Democrats. We find a partisan residency gap for even moderately SLR exposed properties of more than 5 percentage points, which has more than doubled over the past six years. Findings are unchanged controlling flexibly for other individual demographics and a variety of granular property characteristics, including the value of the home. Residential sorting manifests among owners regardless of occupancy, but not among renters, and is driven by long-run SLR exposure but not current flood risk. Anticipatory sorting on climate change suggests that households that are most likely to vote against climate friendly policies and least likely to adapt may ultimately bear the burden of climate change.

JEL-codes: D10 D72 G1 G5 Q5 Q54 R2 R21 R23 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env, nep-pol and nep-ure
Note: EEE PE POL
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Published as Asaf Bernstein & Stephen B. Billings & Matthew T. Gustafson & Ryan Lewis, 2022. "Partisan residential sorting on climate change risk," Journal of Financial Economics, .

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