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Do environmental right-to-know laws affect markets? Capitalization of information in the toxic release inventory

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  • Mastromonaco, Ralph

Abstract

This paper investigates how information contained in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program, one of the largest environmental right-to-know programs, affects prices in the housing market. I use a strengthening of the reporting requirements for the chemical lead in 2001 as exogenous variation to test for housing price changes near existing firms who must now report. Using a difference-in-differences specification, I find that listing an existing firm in the Toxic Release Inventory lowers housing prices up to 11% within approximately 1 mile. The results suggest that housing market participants do capitalize into prices at least some information conveyed by the TRI program.

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  • Mastromonaco, Ralph, 2015. "Do environmental right-to-know laws affect markets? Capitalization of information in the toxic release inventory," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 54-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:71:y:2015:i:c:p:54-70
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2015.02.004
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    4. Hausman, Catherine & Stolper, Samuel, 2021. "Inequality, information failures, and air pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Nicholas J. Sanders, 2012. "Toxic Assets: How the Housing Market Responds to Environmental Information Shocks," Working Papers 128, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    6. Wang, Xiao & Deltas, George & Khanna, Madhu & Bi, Xiang, 2017. "Community Pressure and the Relocation of Toxic Facilities," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258390, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Liu, Shaohui & Liu, Chuanjiang & Yang, Mian, 2021. "The effects of national environmental information disclosure program on the upgradation of regional industrial structure: Evidence from 286 prefecture-level cities in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 552-561.
    8. Georgic, Will & Klaiber, H. Allen, 2022. "Stocks, flows, and flood insurance: A nationwide analysis of the capitalized impact of annual premium discounts on housing values," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    9. H. Spencer Banzhaf, 2021. "Difference-in-Differences Hedonics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(8), pages 2385-2414.
    10. Mary F. Evans, 2016. "The Clean Air Act Watch List: An Enforcement and Compliance Natural Experiment," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 627-665.
    11. Earnhart, Dietrich & Germeshausen, Robert & von Graevenitz, Kathrine, 2022. "Effects of information-based regulation on financial outcomes: Evidence from the European Union's public emission registry," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-015, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Gibbons, Stephen & Heblich, Stephan & Timmins, Christopher, 2021. "Market tremors: Shale gas exploration, earthquakes, and their impact on house prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    13. Phaneuf, Daniel J. & Liu, Xiangping, 2016. "Disentangling property value impacts of environmental contamination from locally undesirable land uses: Implications for measuring post-cleanup stigmaAuthor-Name: Taylor, Laura O," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 85-98.
    14. Zhaohua Zhang & Derrick Robinson & Diane Hite, 2018. "Racial Residential Segregation: Measuring Location Choice Attributes of Environmental Quality and Self-Segregation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, April.
    15. Evan Herrnstadt & Richard L. Sweeney, 2017. "What Lies Beneath: Pipeline Awareness and Aversion," NBER Working Papers 23858, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Georgic, Will C. & Klaiber, Allen, 2018. "Identifying the Costs to Homeowners of Eliminating NFIP Subsidies," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274444, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Panle Jia Barwick & Shanjun Li & Liguo Lin & Eric Zou, 2019. "From Fog to Smog: the Value of Pollution Information," NBER Working Papers 26541, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Du, Xinming, 2023. "Competing with clean air: Pollution disclosure and college desirability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    19. Boslett, Andrew & Hill, Elaine, 2019. "Shale gas transmission and housing prices," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 36-50.
    20. Kathrine Graevenitz & Daniel Römer & Alexander Rohlf, 2018. "The Effect of Emission Information on Housing Prices: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 69(1), pages 23-74, January.
    21. De Silva, Dakshina G. & McComb, Robert P. & Schiller, Anita R. & Slechten, Aurelie, 2021. "Firm behavior and pollution in small geographies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    22. Patrick Gourley, 2019. "Social Stigma and Asset Value," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(3), pages 919-938, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Right-to-know laws; Toxic release inventory; Quasi-experimental; Difference-in-differences; Environmental quality; Hedonics; Risk perceptions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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