Non-market adaptations to climate change and recreational policy evaluation: three essays in environmental and applied microeconomics

O'Connor, Sean

Non-market adaptations to climate change and recreational policy evaluation: three essays in environmental and applied microeconomics

dc.contributor.advisor	Kuruc, Kevin
dc.contributor.advisor	Hicks, Daniel
dc.contributor.author	O'Connor, Sean
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Kim, Myongjin
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Ghosh, Pallab
dc.contributor.committeeMember	McFadden, Jonathan
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Carlson, Deven
dc.date.accessioned	2021-05-27T17:01:21Z
dc.date.available	2021-05-27T17:01:21Z
dc.date.issued	2021-05-14
dc.date.manuscript	2021-05-14
dc.description.abstract	The first chapter examines the role of non-market behavioral adaptation to climate change in the United States for the case of outdoor leisure with a novel estimation procedure that accounts for both short-run weather and long-run climate adjustments. First, I comprehensively review the temperature sensitivity of all activities in the American Time Use Survey using a flexible non-linear estimation procedure. Predictably most activities are found to be unresponsive to temperature with the exception of those that take place outdoors. Time spent outdoors is studied further using the Climate Adaptation Response Estimation approach, which allows for temperature responses to vary geographically. I find the sensitivity to temperature varies across the country, and this variation is especially pronounced for cold-weather cities in which inhabitants modify their outdoor and physical activities in response to temperatures more than warm-weather cities. Simulating the expected change in outdoor activity time using climate models compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change implies a large increase in outdoor time driven by warmer winters. In the second chapter, I explore how policing in the United States is influenced by weather and climate. Policing is under renewed scrutiny following a number of high-profile murders at the hands of law enforcement officers. I use data from the Stanford Open Policing Project, which includes over 200 million traffic and pedestrian stops between 2011-2019, to estimate the sensitivity of police productivity to weather. Results from non-linear temperature response functions suggest a ten percent increase in the number of stops police conduct on the hottest days. These results are further supported with estimates showing that the speeds at which drivers are stopped for speeding violations are five percent lower on hot days relative to cool days. Finally, using the ``veil of darkness'' approach, I find that the gap in the rate of pullovers of black drivers during daylight versus at night increases on hot days. Taken together, these results suggest that police activity is influenced to a large degree by the weather. The third chapter investigates the consequences of marijuana legalization on housing markets in the United States. Despite federal law, twelve American states and Washington D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana since 2012. Using a national housing data set from the online real estate listing database Zillow.com, we identify the cross and inter-state effects of marijuana legalization on house prices in different points of the price distribution function. We find positive effects upwards of ten percent in the top half of the price distribution following successful legalization ballot initiatives, and between five and fifteen percent across the distribution after the state enacts the ballot initiative and the first legal sales take place. A spatial difference-in-differences model reveals that within Colorado and Washington, prices in neighborhoods with new dispensary openings nearby experience a seven percent price appreciation. To summarize, our results suggest that there are second order benefits to marijuana legalization.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244/330045
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Environmental Economics	en_US
dc.subject	Policy Evaluation	en_US
dc.subject	Economics	en_US
dc.subject	Climate Change	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Ph.D.	en_US
dc.title	Non-market adaptations to climate change and recreational policy evaluation: three essays in environmental and applied microeconomics	en_US
ou.group	College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Economics	en_US