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Fear of Fracking: The Impact of the Shale Gas Exploration on House Prices in Britain

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  • Steve Gibbons
  • Stephan Heblich
  • Esther Lho
  • Christopher Timmins

Abstract

Shale gas has grown to become a major new source of energy in countries around the globe. While its importance for energy supply is well recognized, there has also been public concern over potential risks – such as damage to buildings and contamination of water supplies – caused by geological disturbance from the hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) extraction process. Although commercial development has not yet taken place in the UK, licenses for drilling were issued in 2008 implying potential future development. This paper examines whether public fears about the geological impacts of fracking are evident in changes in house prices in areas that have been licensed for shale gas exploration. Our estimates suggest differentiated effects. Licensing did not affect house prices but areas where shale gas development was mentioned in the license application experienced an average house price decrease between 1 and 1.5 percent for the period 2008-2014. This was a response to geological events related to fracking. Specifically, two very minor earthquakes caused by the process in 2011 were strong drivers of this price drop. We find a 2.7-4.1 percent house price decrease in the area where the earthquakes occurred. Robustness checks confirm our findings.

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  • Steve Gibbons & Stephan Heblich & Esther Lho & Christopher Timmins, 2016. "Fear of Fracking: The Impact of the Shale Gas Exploration on House Prices in Britain," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 16/671, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
  • Handle: RePEc:bri:uobdis:16/671
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    2. Ng'ombe, John N. & Boyer, Tracy A., 2019. "Determinants of earthquake damage liability assignment in Oklahoma: A Bayesian Tobit censored approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 422-433.
    3. Jonathan Eyer & Matthew E. Kahn, 2017. "Prolonging Coal’s Sunset: The Causes and Consequences of Local Protectionism for a Declining Polluting Industry," NBER Working Papers 23190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Rozo, Sandra V., 2020. "Unintended effects of illegal economic activities: Illegal gold mining and malaria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    5. Nicholas Apergis & Sayantan Ghosh Dastidar & Ghulam Mustafa, 2021. "Fracking and Asset Prices: The Role of Health Indicators for House Prices Across Oklahoma’s Counties," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 583-602, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Shale gas; Fracturing; Property valuation; Housing prices; Consumer expectation; hedonic price; United Kingdom.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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