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What Lies Beneath: Pipeline Awareness and Aversion

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Listed:
  • Evan Herrnstadt
  • Richard L. Sweeney

Abstract

Stated safety concerns are a major impediment to making necessary expansions to the natural gas pipeline network. While revealed willingness to pay to avoid existing natural gas pipelines appears small, it is difficult to know if this reflects true ambivalence or a lack of salience and awareness. In this paper, we test this latter hypothesis by studying how house prices responded to a deadly 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno, CA, which shocked both attention and information. Using multiple identification strategies, we fail to find any evidence of a meaningful shift in the hedonic price gradient around pipelines following these events. We conclude with a discussion of how this result relates to latent, fully informed preferences, as well as the implications for future pipeline expansions.

Suggested Citation

  • Evan Herrnstadt & Richard L. Sweeney, 2017. "What Lies Beneath: Pipeline Awareness and Aversion," NBER Working Papers 23858, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23858
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lucija Muehlenbachs & Elisheba Spiller & Christopher Timmins, 2015. "The Housing Market Impacts of Shale Gas Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(12), pages 3633-3659, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Brian & Wang, Szu-Yung & Lin, Tzu-Chin & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2021. "Underground pipeline explosions and housing prices: Quasi-experimental evidence from an urban city," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    2. McCoy, Shawn J. & Walsh, Randall P., 2018. "Wildfire risk, salience & housing demand," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 203-228.
    3. David A. Anderson, 2020. "Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines: Risks and Remedies for Host Communities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-10, April.
    4. Boslett, Andrew & Hill, Elaine, 2019. "Shale gas transmission and housing prices," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 36-50.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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