Title

Legacies of Lead: Estimating Home Buyer Respomse to Potential Lead Exposure

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2020

Publication Title

Land Economics

Volume

96

Issue

2

First page number:

171

Last page number:

187

Abstract

Excessive levels of lead in homes pose health hazards, but exposure is discerned ex post. As a precaution, local jurisdictions assign risk levels to neighborhoods based on contamination potential and require blood lead testing, leading to decreased desirability. This paper examines capitalization effects of lead risk disclosure from such an information-based policy, exploiting spatially varying implementation of a childhood lead reduction program identifying price effects via a triple-difference border discontinuity model. Information about lead risks lowers high-risk house prices by 7.7% while shifting neighborhood composition, suggesting the program altered risk perceptions, creating unintended consequences in the market. (JEL Q58, R21)

Disciplines

Environmental Public Health | Structures and Materials

Language

English

UNLV article access

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