Toxic Assets: How the Housing Market Responds to Environmental Information Shocks

Jeremy G. Moulton, Nicholas Sanders and Scott A. Wentland

Land Economics, 2024, vol. 100, issue 1, 66-88

Abstract: Using national microdata from Zillow, we examine how U.S. housing markets respond to expanded information on local pollution stemming from a 1998 reporting change to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Using both a difference-in-differences and a regression discontinuity in time design, we find that news coverage of the new TRI data lowered sales prices of homes near the largest reporting polluters but only within a tight geographic distance. Effects are isolated to homes within 0.5 miles of facilities reporting the largest amount of emissions (> 100 tons). This price capitalization implies public information on local polluters shifted private market behavior, suggesting a role for government as provider of information.

JEL-codes: Q51 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/le.100.1.102122-0089R
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Toxic Assets: How the Housing Market Responds to Environmental Information Shocks (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:landec:v:100:y:2024:i:1:p:66-88

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