[Publications]
[Publications]
Niu, D., Steil, J., & Zheng, S. (2026) Aligning Climate and Housing Goals: A Data-Driven Approach to Support Equitable Decarbonization Policy Design. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society. rsag028.
Arcaya, M., Morales, D., Niu, D., Shao, C., & Zheng, S. (2026) Navigating Energy Mandates in Multifamily Sector: Insights from Apartment Owners and Managers. International Real Estate Review. Accepted.
Niu, D., Eichholtz, P., Kok, N. (2025) Asymmetric Information Provision and Flood Risk Salience. Journal of Housing Economics, 102060.
Muzio, MJ., Niu, D., Steil, J., Zheng, S. (2025) Understanding Housing Market Responses to Stringent Energy Codes. Real Estate Economics, forthcoming.
Kang, Y., Niu, D., Song, J., & Sun, W. (2024). Feeling the Heat: Extreme Temperatures and Housing Prices in China. Journal of Economic Surveys.
Holtermans, R., Niu, D., & Zheng, S. (2024). Quantifying the Impacts of Climate Shocks in Commercial Real Estate Market. Journal of Regional Science.
Büchler, S., Niu, D., Thompson, A., & Zheng, S. (2023). The Impact of Human Capital and Housing Supply on Urban Growth. Urban Studies, 61(2), 214-230.
Wang, L., Niu, D., Fan, H., & Long, X. (2022). Urban configuration and PM2. 5 concentrations: Evidence from 330 Chinese cities. Environment International, 161, 107129.
Niu, D., Sun, W., & Zheng, S. (2021). The role of informal housing in lowering China’s urbanization costs. Regional Science and Urban Economics. 103638.
Ma, L., Niu, D., & Sun, W. (2021). Transportation infrastructure and entrepreneurship: Evidence from high-speed railway in China. China Economic Review. 65, 101577.
Duan, L., Niu, D., Sun, W., & Zheng, S. (2021). Transportation infrastructure and capital mobility: evidence from China’s high-speed railways. The Annals of Regional Science. (2021): 1-32.
Niu, D., Sun, W., & Zheng, S. (2020). Travel Costs, Trade, and Market Segmentation: Evidence from China’s High-Speed Railway. Papers in Regional Science. 99 (6), 1799-1825.
Sun, W., Niu, D., Wan, G.,Transportation Facilities and Industrial Upgrade: Evidence from China’s High-speed Railway (in Chinese, <管理世界>), 2022, 3.
(with Nils Kok, Juan Palacios, and Siqi Zheng)
Abstract: While there is extensive evidence describing the effects of climate risk on asset prices, little is known about how professional valuers incorporate climate risk into their valuation practices. We examine how home valuers incorporate climate risk into property assessments by analyzing a comprehensive dataset of house transactions across coastal areas in the U.S. Our findings suggest that valuers systematically underestimate the impact of flood risk associated with sea level rise, leading to an overvaluation of at-risk properties by 3.1–4.4%, even after controlling for a rich set of location and property attributes. This overvaluation declines gradually through informal learning mechanisms, particularly (1) increased local appraisal experience with high-risk properties and (2) firsthand personal exposure to flooding. In contrast, formal training programs appear largely ineffective in addressing this gap, likely due to an insufficient emphasis on cli- mate risk. Mispriced climate risk could distort lending and insurance decisions, exposing financial institutions to unrecognized climate-related losses.
Presented at: NUS Real Estate Seminar 2024, MIT Climate Change and Real Estate Symposium 2024; AREUEA/ASSA 2025; AREUEA National 2025; FSU-UF Critical Issues in Real Estate 2025
(with Yichun Fan, Thomas Williams, Siqi Zheng)
Abstract: Textbook insurance pricing ties a property's premium to its own hazard exposure: riskier properties pay higher premiums. But institutional investors in commercial real estate do not buy coverage one property at a time; they negotiate it for their entire fund portfolio. We examine whether, and by how much, the disaster-risk profile of the portfolio is capitalized into the insurance cost recorded against individual properties. Matching property-level insurance expense from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) to modeled expected disaster damage from Moody's Risk Management Solutions (RMS), we find that a property's insurance cost depends on the fund portfolio it sits in. Holding own hazard exposure fixed, insurance expense rises with the mean risk of the fund portfolio and falls with the fund's scale and risk diversification. A transaction-based design that tracks the same property as it moves between funds with different risk profiles confirms the pattern. The two designs agree on the magnitude: a 10 percent increase in the average disaster risk of the surrounding portfolio raises a property's insurance cost by roughly 0.4 percent. Because insurance expense is charged directly against net operating income (NOI), portfolio-level pricing implies that otherwise identical assets can differ in their NOIs and thus underwriting values according to the portfolios that hold them, with implications for disaster-risk measurement, disclosure, and the allocation of climate-exposed assets across institutional owners.
Natural Disasters and Socio-Economic Consequences (with Nils Kok and Philibert Weenink)
How Digitalization is Reshaping Sustainable Workplace and Urban Growth: The Role of Human Capital
(with Ambra Amico and Siqi Zheng)
[Conferences and Presentations]
2027: ASSA-AREUEA Annual Conference (forthcoming), Jan 2027, Washington DC, US
2026: 5th Workshop on Residential Housing: Research Frontiers in Climate Risks and Affordability, Sep 2026, Cambridge, UK; Real Estate Finance & Investment Symposium, Sep 2026, Cambridge, UK; International Conference on Construction and Real Estate Management (ICCREM), Nov 2026, Hong Kong, China
2025: ASSA-AREUEA Annual Conference, Jan 2025, San Francisco, US; FSU-UF Critical Issues in Real Estate Symposium, March 2025, Tallahassee, US; AREUEA National Conference, May 2025. Washington DC, US; The 2025 Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Conference – ‘The Climate Crisis: making cities resilient’, July 2025, Cambridge, UK
2024: FHFA Internal Seminar, Dec 2024, zoom; MIT Climate Change and Real Estate Symposium, Oct 2024, Cambridge, US; Real Estate Finance and Investment Symposium, Sep 2024, Cambridge, UK; AREUEA International Conference, Jun 2024, Curaçao, the Netherlands; Dutch Financial Economics of Climate and Sustainability Workshop, May 2024, Amsterdam; ASSA-AREUEA Annual Conference, Jan 2024, San Antonio, US
2023: EEA-ESEM Annual Conference, August 2023, Barcelona, Spain; CRED-MIT Workshop on Real Estate Economics, August 2023, Bern, Switzerland; AREUEA International Conference, July 2023, Cambridge, UK; AREUEA National Conference, June 2023, Washington DC, US; 12th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association, May 2023, Milan, Italy
2022: MIT Climate Change and Real Estate Conference, Dec 2022, Boston, US
2021: 15th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association, Oct 2021 (Zoom); AsRES/AREUEA, July 2021 (Zoom); ASSA-AREUEA Annual Conference, Jan 2021 (Zoom)
2019: North American Regional Science Conference, Nov 2019, Pittsburgh, US; Asian Real Estate Society Annual Conference, Jul 2019, Shenzhen, China; China Urban Economists Forum, Jun 2019, Tianjin, China