Conference Agenda

Flood risk is increasing with climate change, intensifying pressure on communities to invest in protective infrastructure such as levees. This paper studies household demand for levees using a stated preference discrete choice experiment conducted among homeowners in flood-prone areas of the Susquehanna River Basin in Pennsylvania. We combine subjective flood risk perceptions with objective, location-specific risk information and embed a randomized information intervention that corrects misperceptions prior to the choice experiment. We document widespread inaccuracies in flood risk perceptions, particularly for probabilistic measures such as cumulative flood risk over a 30-year mortgage horizon. Despite these misperceptions, providing objective flood risk information has no statistically or economically meaningful effect on willingness to pay (WTP) for levees, nor does it affect respondents with low baseline knowledge or those who under- or overestimate risk. Households do not significantly differentiate between levees offering different levels of flood protection. WTP declines when levees impose downstream flood damages, indicating that respondents internalize negative spillovers. Heterogeneity in WTP is driven primarily by personal flood experience rather than information or demographics.

Housing is a major component of U.S. wealth, yet the long-term impact of tropical cyclones on housing markets is poorly understood. This paper presents a systematic analysis of all U.S. coastal counties exposed to tropical cyclones from 1992–2021. Despite a short-term rise, housing values decline by 15% over eight years following cyclone exposure, with the most persistent losses in less-experienced areas. Rising insurance uptake post-disaster drives increased living costs, partly explaining price declines, while higher-risk areas eventually rebound due to greater insurance coverage.

As climate-related hazards intensify, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have emerged as a potentially cost-efficient and effective alternative to traditional adaptive solutions. Besides risk reduction, NbS offer multiple simultaneous benefits (known as co-benefits) that are often undervalued in decision-making, limiting public and private investment. This study uses a discrete choice experiment, co-designed with local stakeholders, to examine public preferences and to derive the willingness to pay (WTP) for NbS that reduce flood risk in the Netherlands. The survey was distributed to 1,895 respondents across the country. We find strong public support for NbS policies, particularly reforestation, and the subsequent benefits: recreation, additional warning time, and biodiversity conservation. In line with literature, age, gender, and environmental attitudes significantly influence the WTP for NbS. Interestingly, when looking into land-use trade-offs, we find a strong attachment to current agricultural land. In order to capture heterogeneity of preferences, we conduct a latent class analysis, which identifies five distinct profiles ranging from ecologically driven supporters of NbS to respondents who value agricultural land highly or those who prefer traditional measures for risk reduction. These results provide evidence to show that NbS policies can have high social support, but the design cannot neglect local stakeholder preferences, considering the current economic land use.

I estimate the mortality and county-level economic impacts of hurricane evacuation orders using a novel instrumental variables framework. Relative to similarly affected but non-evacuated areas, evacuated counties experience fewer deaths but lower personal income, employment, and business establishments for at least two years following the storm. I show that these economic losses stem from a stalled recovery driven by congestion in disaster aid, insurance payouts, and access to contractors. Finally, I develop a decision rule for emergency managers that balances the expected mortality benefits of evacuation against its economic costs using real-time storm forecasts.