Research Statement

Link to Jaeyong (Danny) Han's Research Statement

Working Papers

Broadcasting Environmental Risk: Local News Coverage and Property Value Declines at Superfund Sites
solo-authored
Revise & Resubmit at the Journal of Public Economics

Presentations) Urban Economics Association (UEA) 20th North American Meeting (scheduled), Midwest Economics Association (MEA) 90th Annual Meeting, Arizona State University CEESP, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) Summer Conference 2025, Local Journalism Researchers' Workshop 2024 & 2025, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, Korea Institute of Public Finance, Arizona State University SGSUP, Sogang University, National Taiwan University

[Abstract] This paper examines how information provision through local news influences household behavior in a hedonic housing market. I construct a novel dataset of local television, radio, and newspaper coverage of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund sites across the United States. Leveraging variation in media exposure, I document substantial heterogeneity in how nearby housing markets respond to environmental risk. I find that house prices fall by more than 3% near sites that receive news coverage, while sites without coverage show muted responses. These results show that salient, high-reach media, especially television, sharpen household awareness of environmental hazards. Ignoring this channel leads to biased estimates of willingness to pay for environmental quality, underscoring the importance of media access in shaping economic responses to environmental risk.

Link to Draft

Imperceptible Contaminants and Housing Markets: Evidence from Local News
with Kay Jowers, Christopher Timmins & Shuhan Zeng
Revise & Resubmit at the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

Presentations) Social Cost of Water Pollution Workshop 2025, Pennsylvania State University*

[Abstract] This paper examines how housing markets respond to information about imperceptible but persistent toxins in drinking water. We study the impact of local television and radio coverage of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination from the Chemours Fayetteville plant, which affected Wilmington, North Carolina. Using regions without such coverage as a counterfactual, we apply synthetic control and difference-in-differences methods. Following the 2017 media reports, Wilmington housing prices declined by 5–9 percent annually from 2018 to 2022. These results highlight the critical role of information in shaping public perception and market valuations of hidden environmental risks.

Link to Draft

Is Information Always Good? The Impact of Information Provision on Residential Equilibria
solo-authored

Presentations) Southern Economics Association (SEA) 96th Annual Meeting (scheduled), Local Journalism Researchers' Workshop 2026, Arizona State University CEESP, Arizona State University SGSUP

[Abstract] This paper examines how information provision through local news shapes the residential equilibrium. I construct a novel dataset of local television, radio, and newspaper coverage of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund sites across the United States. Exploiting variation in media exposure, I document heterogeneity in residential location choices near Superfund sites across demographic and income groups. I provide new evidence that while information about environmental hazards may reveal households’ underlying preferences, it can also generate unintended distributional consequences. Hispanic and Black households exhibit lower willingness to pay to avoid Superfund sites than White households, though heterogeneity is larger across income groups: the gap in willingness to pay between the lowest- and highest-income households exceeds $10,000. Overall, local news coverage induces poorer and minority households to sort into areas near Superfund sites, raising important questions about information provision and environmental inequality.

[Draft available upon request]

Sinking Ground, Toxic Water: Infant Health Impacts of Land Subsidence
with Maura Allaire & Mehdi Nemati

Presentations) University of California, Riverside - School of Public Policy

[Abstract] Over-extraction of groundwater in California has led to substantial land subsidence, mobilizing arsenic into Community Water Systems through clay compaction. This study establishes a robust link between subsidence and arsenic concentrations and uses subsidence as an instrumental variable to identify causal effects on infant health. By exploiting the geological exogeneity of subsidence, we account for confounding from residential sorting and socioeconomic status. The estimates reveal that arsenic exposure significantly impairs birth outcomes: a 1μg/L increase in arsenic reduces birth weight by 4 to 8 grams and gestation length by 8 hours. These findings suggest that groundwater depletion externalities extend to regressive human capital costs, which can inform groundwater management and regulation.

Link to Draft

Works in Progress

The Role of News Media in Housing Market Capitalization of Coal Ash Spills
with Christopher Timmins, Paige Weber & Ben Weintraut

Presentations) Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE) Summer Conference 2024, Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)*

[Abstract & Draft coming soon]

Land Subsidence and Water Quality in Arizona
with Maura Allaire

[Abstract & Draft coming soon]

Arsenic Rule Change: Effect on Drinking Water Quality and Birth Outcomes
with Maura Allaire & Jun Wu

[Abstract & Draft coming soon]

*Presentation by coauthor