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Category Archives: D0

Externalities of Overhead Power Lines on Residential Housing Values

by Jake Park-Walters

Abstract 

Overhead electricity transmission lines (OHLs) create negative externalities on nearby housing values largely from perceived factors including aesthetics, safety, and health. Studies have been performed outside of the US to determine the specific value impact of power lines by proximity. It is not, however, well researched within the United States–specifically in suburban and urban areas. To assess the value loss from overhead power lines, this study examines housing transactions in North Carolina from 1997 to 2020 with a particular emphasis upon cities and townships. With GIS software, proximity variables are calculated such that a difference-indifference regression can estimate the impact of distance to OHL on transaction values. This is important for local policy regarding whether municipalities may want to invest into burying power lines as a means of improving local property values. The results attempt to illustrate how burying high impact lines (HILs) can generate high public benefit relative to cost through marginal value of public funds (MVPF) calculations. These HILs may be chosen based on a variety of factors including proximity to dense, high value housing to maximize value improvement by burial.

Professor David Berger, Faculty Advisor
Professor Michelle Connolly, Faculty Advisor

JEL Codes: L94, H76, D04

Keywords: Electric Utilities, Policy Evaluation, Local Government Expenditure

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Navigating the Maize of Poverty: Intra-Household Allocation and Investment in Children’s Human Capital in Tanzania

By Saheel Chodavadia  

Intra-household resource allocation influences investment in children’s human capital and hence influences long-term poverty levels. I study how climate shocks in Tanzania shift intra-household bargaining power and investment in children’s human capital. Past empirical work finds that bargaining power is associated with income, assets, education, and other often unobservable factors. Anthropological evidence from Tanzania suggests that male decision-makers in poor households control most income and own most assets. Conditioning on changes in total household resources due to climate shocks, I find evidence consistent with climate shocks increasing female bargaining power through a reduction in male decision-maker’s income. Specifically, climate shocks in households with more educated women increase investment in children’s education and improve anthropometric measures of health. Lastly, I comment on the usefulness of relative education as a proxy for bargaining power in contexts of data and cultural limitations on distinct assets and income streams for decision-makers.

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Advisors: Professor Robert Garlick, Professor Michelle Connolly | JEL Codes: D0, D13, I20

Program Characteristics and Economic Conditions That Affect WIC Participation

By Amy Tingle

WIC is one of the most expansive food assistance programs in the United States. Despite extensive research demonstrating the health benefits of participation, there is a sizable gap between those that are eligible and those that enroll. This paper studies how economic conditions and program characteristics affect both eligibility and coverage rates using post recession data from 20102013. The results show that the average monthly food benefit is positively correlated with takeup. They also indicate that the unemployment rate is correlated with eligibility but not takeup, meaning that in times of economic downturn, people enroll at the same rate as before. 

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Advisor: V. Joseph Hotz | JEL Codes: D04, D60 | Tagged: Participation in Federal Assistance, WIC Program

Video Game Sales: Does Diversity Pay?

By Hai Lin “Helena” Wu

The video game industry has grown into a mature market in the past decade, surpassing the size of the U.S. film industry in 2009. As a result of the rise in popularity of video gaming amongst many demographic groups of the American population, the underrepresentation of female and ethnic minorities in video games has become an increasingly relevant topic of discussion. This paper empirically examines the effects of including female and ethnic minority lead characters on the equilibrium sales volume of video games. Through the use of a reduced-­‐form regression, the equilibrium quantity is regressed on a list of exogenous variables pertinent to the interest of this study. The findings suggest that the inclusion of female and minority lead characters affects sales of different genres of games in distinct manners, suggesting that the video game market has a heterogeneous consumer base with a diverse range of preferences. In addition to empirical work, one of the main contributions of this paper is creating a new and unique dataset (N=712) on game attributes, especially with regard to character gender and ethnicity. This paper’s findings have implications on the game design decisions for video game producers.

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Data Set

Advisor: Kent Kimbrough, Lori Leachman | JEL Codes: D00, L1, L82 | Tagged: Entertainment, Ethnicity, Gender, Sales, Video Game

Marijuana Pricing Structure and State-Level Price Determinants

By Rebecca Li

This study uses the PriceofWeed.com data set first examined in Thies (2012) to analyze the price-quantity relationship for marijuana transactions and to determine the effect of various state-level factors on marijuana prices. By applying the cost-based full fixed cost recovery pricing model developed by Britney, Kuzdrall, and Fartuch (1983), this paper finds support for an inverse price-quantity relationship for marijuana rather than a logarithmic or linear relationship. User-rated quality is robust and significant across all models, and price-quantity discount elasticity of -0.220 is observed empirically. An analysis of state-level legal, demand-side, and supply-side determinants of marijuana price demonstrates that medical marijuana has a negative relationship with price, perhaps due to the reduction in risk faced by suppliers when medical marijuana is legalized.

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Data Set

Advisor: Michael Munger, Phil Cook | JEL Codes: D04, I18, K42 | Tagged: Marijuana, Price, Quality, Transaction Size

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dus_asst@econ.duke.edu

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michelle.connolly@duke.edu