Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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Air Pollution 4 Location: B005 Session Chair: Yanming Sun, East China Normal University | |
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Persistence in Environmental Exposure: Evidence from Anchoring 1: North Carolina A&T State University; 2: Pennsylvania State University; 3: University of Texas at El Paso; 4: Binghamton University Why do individuals raised in environmentally disadvantaged areas often remain in similar conditions as adults? We propose a behavioral mechanism of environmental anchoring, where past lived experiences serve as a reference point for future residential choices. We develop a discrete choice model of residential sorting that incorporates reference-dependent preferences, positing that individuals discount the utility of amenities, such as air quality or climate, when they diverge substantially from their formative baseline. This framework offers a micro-foundation for the intergenerational persistence of environmental exposure: individuals from low-amenity origins may undervalue improvements in environmental quality, leading them to self-sort into similarly disadvantaged locations. We test this theory empirically using an augmented gravity model of U.S. county-to-county migration flows from 2013 to 2017. By constructing a measure of environmental distance between origin and destination, we isolate the role of environmental anchoring in migration decisions. We find robust evidence that migration flows are significantly larger between counties with similar environmental and socioeconomic pro les, even after controlling for physical distance and economic opportunities. These findings suggest that spatial inequality is reinforced not only by structural constraints but by internalized preferences, implying that policies aiming to promote intergenerational mobility must account for the behavioral stickiness of past environmental exposure. | |