CAREER: The Extent, Causes, and Economic Consequences of the Distribution of Clean Air, Land, and Water

Across the United States, different places have different levels of environmental benefits (such as clean air) and risks (such as groundwater pollution). These differences have important implications for health, productivity, and economic opportunity. This CAREER project uses a newly constructed individual-level data set that includes rich demographic, environmental, and economic information. These data will be analyzed to answer important questions about how environmental factors affect the extent, causes and consequences of the distributional impacts of risks and benefits. The first part of the research studies individual exposure and the second analyzes the mechanisms that result in the observed demographic distribution of environmental risks and benefits. The third and final part studies how this distribution affects health, productivity and economic opportunity. The data can also be used to evaluate the effects of natural disasters on specific parts of US population. This CAREER award funds research using a combination of different methods to study the causes and consequences of the distribution of environmental goods on the well-being of the US population. The first set of projects produce new descriptive facts about individual exposure to environmental benefits and hazards. These insights provide the context and framing to think about the models and mechanisms underlying the distribution of benefits and hazards. The second set of projects answer questions about the mechanisms that cause this distribution. The third part of the project provides new evidence on how environmental factors shape health, productivity, and economic opportunity in the U.S. This effort pays particular attention to combining microeconomic data and research designs with macroeconomic models to better understand aggregate and distributional effects. The results of this research will help us understand the costs and benefits of environmental policies and how decisions by firms and consumers can increase labor productivity and overall well being. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.