Working Papers
Punishment, Inequality, and Heterogeneous Risk in Threshold Public Goods Games (Job Market Paper)
Abstract: International efforts to stave off adverse climate change have been lengthy in deliberation and largely unsuccessful. While emission reductions are costly for the mitigating individual but benefit the global population, additional factors (varying risk susceptibilities to climate change, heterogeneous mitigation efforts, and inequitable pollution shares) have inhibited the ability to reach a binding environmental agreement. I experimentally characterize the climate change social dilemma and evaluate how heterogeneous environmental impacts and unequal endowments affect the propensity to avoid catastrophic climate change. Introducing a punishment mechanism to alleviate the collective bargaining problem, I identify the external factors and intrinsic preferences that impede cooperation. Inequality and delayed contributions negatively affect successful provision, while higher levels of collective-risk increase the probability of threshold attainment. A consensual punishment mechanism incentivizes cooperation in low-risk and heterogeneous groups, overcoming the collective action problem. Social preferences yield guilt that increases contributions while risk aversion negatively impacts threshold attainment in a game with strategic uncertainty.
An Economic Analysis of Radical Environmentalism and Counterterrorism Policy
Abstract: The War on Terror has motivated military and legal efforts to prevent not only transnational terrorist incidents, but domestic terrorism as well. Operating on the fringes of the mainstream movement, the FBI identifies radical environmental direct action (REDA) groups as the number one domestic terrorist threat with over $110 million in damages between 1995 and 2005. While passive legislative interventions increase the cost of illegal action and proactive policies thwart terrorism with preemptive strikes, the efficacy of counterterrorism efforts has been questioned. Using quarterly data from 1980 to 2014, I analyze the effect of counterterrorism policy on REDA modes of attack and the severity of illegal actions. Combining vector autoregression and intervention analysis under a rational choice framework, I find that while legislative policies have decreased the economic severity of attacks, incidents have more than doubled. Proactive interventions reduce domestic terrorism, but by a smaller magnitude than the increase from passive legislation. Substituting between modes of attack and ideological targets, policies have tripled the use of explosives while REDA attacks against people have increased more than sixfold in the long run.
Payment for Ecosystem Services and the Impact on Avoided Deforestation: A Meta-Analysis
Abstract: Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have complemented conservation efforts to avoid deforestation in developing nations. Alongside protected areas and sustainable forest management regulations, PES programs provide a market-based mechanism to compensate landowners and farmers for the environmental benefits they provide. While deforestation rates worldwide have stabilized, the impact and cost-effectiveness of PES programs have been questioned. Targeting counterfactual-based studies to identify additionality gains and minimize leakage impacts, I perform a meta-analysis to evaluate how PES program design and market factors impact avoided deforestation. Program design variables include contract length, payment differentiation, and participation targeting. Environmental variables proxy for opportunity costs by controlling for alternative land use prices and socioeconomic conditions. As each dimension has a varying impact on avoided deforestation, these results aim to influence future market based interventions.
Works in Progress
Estimating the willingness to pay for sustainable living communities
University recycling programs and awareness campaigns