Economics Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Economics Theses and Dissertations by Author "Cameron, Trudy"

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    Environmental Policy Across Terrestrial Space
    (University of Oregon, 2022-10-04) Morehouse, John; Cameron, Trudy
    This dissertation examines spatial heterogeneity that results from various environmental policies. In Chapter 1, I provide a comprehensive overview of each dissertation chapter. Chapter 2 (with Ed Rubin) demonstrates that most coal-fueled power plants are located on or near jurisdictional (county or state) borders. We find that coal-fired power plants are disproportionately sited on downwind borders (within county or state). Natural gas plants---much lower polluters---do not exhibit this behavior. Motivated by the inferred strategic siting, we use an atmospheric dispersion model developed by NOAA to estimate various aspects of the ``pollution transport problem.'' We find that nearly 90% of coal-based particulate matter leaves its state of origin within 48 hours of release. Chapter 3 (with Mark Colas) examines the effects of stringent land-use regulations on national carbon emissions. We develop and estimate a general equilibrium model of residential sorting and energy consumption. We find that relaxing land-use restrictions in California leads to a 0.6% drop in national carbon emissions. The mechanism behind this drop is straightforward. California cities have a temperate climate, carbon-efficient power plants, and high land-use regulations. These land-use regulations inflate housing prices, thus keeping households out of California cities. When households live outside of California, they emit more carbon on average, and therefore national carbon emissions are higher due to California's land-use regulations. In Chapter 4, I simulate the labor market effects of a carbon tax across the continental United States. To recover the welfare impacts of a carbon tax, I build and estimate a spatial equilibrium model that features heterogeneous households. I incorporate a rich level of heterogeneity into the model that allows me to answer: (1) who is most affected by a carbon tax, (2) how much the burden of a carbon tax is borne on different households, and (3) where the households are that bear the greatest burden from the tax. I find that workers without a college degree in manufacturing bear a disproportionate share of the tax incidence. Chapter 5 concludes this dissertation. This dissertation includes previously both previously published and unpublished and co-authored material.
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    Essays in Environmental Economics
    (University of Oregon, 2020-02-27) Wilson, Kyle; Cameron, Trudy
    This dissertation focuses on two aspects of Environmental Economics that are critical in cost-benefit analysis. Chapters II and III focus on estimating potential costs of drought that may be exacerbated by climate change, and Chapter IV focuses on examining the hedonic property value model that is commonly used to estimate potential benefits of environmental regulation. In Chapter II I estimate the impact of drought on crime in South Africa. Using a police-station by year panel, I exploit variation in the timing of droughts and water management policies to explain changes in crime. I find that violent crimes increase by 10%, police-detected crimes fall by 20%, and that there is no discernible impact on sex crimes or property crimes. These findings suggest that in the future, especially as severe droughts become more prevalent due to climate change, crime prevention may be an important component of climate policy. In Chapter III I examine how exposure to drought affects migration in the United States using a dataset of bilateral migration flows from 2000-2013. I find that moderate and severe drought do not significantly influence migration, but that exceptional drought and multi-year severe droughts reduce out-migration from afflicted counties. I further find that this result is strongest in low-income and high-poverty counties. These results suggest that adaptation to climate change through migration may be limited for disadvantaged groups in the United States. In Chapter IV I examine how the presence of a bubble in the housing markets affects estimates in a hedonic propery value model. The results indicate that the bubble does cause bias in the naive estimates, and that the extent of the bias increases with the size of the bubble.
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    Essays in Nonmarket Valuation
    (University of Oregon, 2019-09-18) Wheeler, William; Cameron, Trudy
    This dissertation focuses on the valuation of nonmarket goods using travel cost models of recreation demand. An accurate and up-to-date understanding of the value of public lands and nonmarket environmental goods is integral to benefit-cost analyses of public lands policies and policies that affect environmental amenities. The present work is motivated by the importance of these benefit-cost analyses and the methods used to value nonmarket amenities. In Chapter II, I examine demand for federally-managed campgrounds in California and consider how changes in campsite attributes or availability would affect consumer welfare. I develop a novel definition of the consideration set to include available sites at different available times over the course of the remaining season to capture the role that intertemporal substitution plays in these nonmarket valuation estimates. In Chapter III, I use campground demand to estimate the value of environmental amenities in the locality of the campgrounds people choose to visit. I use the fitted model to calculate the welfare impact of weather changes associated with projected climate change under two emissions scenarios and find that the lower emissions scenario results in 40% smaller welfare losses on average. In Chapter IV, I use remotely-sensed historical wildfire data to explore the relationship between campground demand and the effects of wildfire. Consistent with other research, I find that recent wildfires increase the utility associated with a particular recreational trip; though, this positive effect is attenuated if the burns were particularly severe.
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    Essays on the Economics of Carbon Pricing
    (University of Oregon, 2019-09-18) Walch, Ryan; Cameron, Trudy
    This research examines the economics of carbon pricing programs with a focus on evaluating issues relating to distribution and equity concerning these policies. The first substantive chapter, Chapter 2, empirically examines a policy question that emerged in evaluating California's carbon cap-and-trade bill. Many environmentalist and environmental justice groups felt that the carbon cap-and-trade program was causing non-carbon ``copollutants'' to be reduced by lesser amounts in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. I find no evidence, at least in the electricity sector, that these concerns are borne out by the data. The second and third substantive chapter describe a stated-preference survey of a large public university on the topic of internal carbon pricing programs. Internal carbon pricing programs voluntarily place a fee on an institutions carbon emissions as a way of encourage emission reductions, raise funds for emission reduction projects and establish a reputation for sustainability. Chapter 3 (With Trudy Ann Cameron and Steve Mital) describe the results of a structural choice model estimated using data from the survey. The willingness to pay for these programs are found to depend on not only the amount of carbon dioxide reductions achieved, but also depend on the distribution of the costs of the program, as well as the distribution of any revenue the program raises. Distributions for willingness to pay across the entire campus community are calculated for several models. Chapter 4 presents a methodology that can be used to ``transfer'' the results and estimates from Chapter 3 to a different, unsurveyed university. Support for internal carbon pricing programs is found to heavily depend on the political and socioeconomic composition of the university population. This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material.
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    Human Capital Accumulation in a Developing-country Context: Gender Disparities, Concurrent and Lagged Effects of Air Pollution and Climate Change
    (University of Oregon, 2020-09-24) Khalid, Ayesha; Cameron, Trudy
    This research examines how air pollution and climate change influence human capital accumulation in a developing-country context and also studies the effects of policies targeted to keep children in school in face of whatever factors deter them from developing their human capital. Effective human capital accumulation enhances a society's potential for economic development and prosperity, and therefore is especially important for developing countries. In Chapter \ref{chapter1}, I evaluate the effectiveness of an increase in the cash amount of a female-targeted conditional cash transfer on schooling outcomes for girls, using a novel monthly dataset on student enrollment and attendance at all public schools in Punjab, Pakistan. I find that the increase in the cash transfer increased female enrollment in $6^{th}$ grade and $9^{th}$ grade in treated districts. The increase in cash transfer also had positive spillover effects on the enrollment of boys in middle and high schools in treated districts. In Chapter \ref{chapter2}, I examine the causal effect of air pollution and temperature on student attendance and test scores using a satellite-based measure of daily pollution and a novel monthly dataset on school enrollment and test scores in Punjab, Pakistan. The instrumental variables estimation indicates that an exogenous increase in air pollution reduces student attendance, and has an adverse effect on test scores---specifically, math and Urdu scores. Estimates of the effects of different temperature levels show that high temperatures in the range 30-38$^\circ$C (86-100.4$^\circ$F) reduce test scores, especially math scores. In Chapter \ref{chapter3}, I investigate the effect of in-utero exposure to pollution and heatwaves on children's physical health and schooling status in Punjab, Pakistan. I find that an increase in air pollution during gestation and an additional heatwave day during gestation reduces height-for-age z-scores and weight-for-age z-scores. However, the negative effects of in-utero temperature shocks seem to decline with a child's age. Moreover, the results suggest in-utero pollution exposure decreases the probability of a school-age child being in school, whereas in-utero exposure to heatwaves lowers the current school-grade of a child, controlling for the child's age.