Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster

The first essay developed a respondent model of Bayesian updating for a double-bound dichotomous choice (DB-DC) contingent valuation methodology. I demonstrated by way of data simulations that current DB-DC identifications of true willingness-to-pay (WTP) may often fail given this respondent Bayesia...

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Main Author: Czajkowski, Jeffrey Robert
Format: Others
Published: FIU Digital Commons 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/49
http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=etd
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spelling ndltd-fiu.edu-oai-digitalcommons.fiu.edu-etd-10282018-07-19T03:31:30Z Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster Czajkowski, Jeffrey Robert The first essay developed a respondent model of Bayesian updating for a double-bound dichotomous choice (DB-DC) contingent valuation methodology. I demonstrated by way of data simulations that current DB-DC identifications of true willingness-to-pay (WTP) may often fail given this respondent Bayesian updating context. Further simulations demonstrated that a simple extension of current DB-DC identifications derived explicitly from the Bayesian updating behavioral model can correct for much of the WTP bias. Additional results provided caution to viewing respondents as acting strategically toward the second bid. Finally, an empirical application confirmed the simulation outcomes. The second essay applied a hedonic property value model to a unique water quality (WQ) dataset for a year-round, urban, and coastal housing market in South Florida, and found evidence that various WQ measures affect waterfront housing prices in this setting. However, the results indicated that this relationship is not consistent across any of the six particular WQ variables used, and is furthermore dependent upon the specific descriptive statistic employed to represent the WQ measure in the empirical analysis. These results continue to underscore the need to better understand both the WQ measure and its statistical form homebuyers use in making their purchase decision. The third essay addressed a limitation to existing hurricane evacuation modeling aspects by developing a dynamic model of hurricane evacuation behavior. A household’s evacuation decision was framed as an optimal stopping problem where every potential evacuation time period prior to the actual hurricane landfall, the household’s optimal choice is to either evacuate, or to wait one more time period for a revised hurricane forecast. A hypothetical two-period model of evacuation and a realistic multi-period model of evacuation that incorporates actual forecast and evacuation cost data for my designated Gulf of Mexico region were developed for the dynamic analysis. Results from the multi-period model were calibrated with existing evacuation timing data from a number of hurricanes. Given the calibrated dynamic framework, a number of policy questions that plausibly affect the timing of household evacuations were analyzed, and a deeper understanding of existing empirical outcomes in regard to the timing of the evacuation decision was achieved. 2007-05-30T07:00:00Z text application/pdf http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/49 http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=etd FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations FIU Digital Commons Hurricanes Structural Shifts Hedonic Property Value Model Optimal Stopping Bayesian Updating Evacuation Contingent Valuation Water Quality
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Hurricanes
Structural Shifts
Hedonic Property Value Model
Optimal Stopping
Bayesian Updating
Evacuation
Contingent Valuation
Water Quality
spellingShingle Hurricanes
Structural Shifts
Hedonic Property Value Model
Optimal Stopping
Bayesian Updating
Evacuation
Contingent Valuation
Water Quality
Czajkowski, Jeffrey Robert
Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster
description The first essay developed a respondent model of Bayesian updating for a double-bound dichotomous choice (DB-DC) contingent valuation methodology. I demonstrated by way of data simulations that current DB-DC identifications of true willingness-to-pay (WTP) may often fail given this respondent Bayesian updating context. Further simulations demonstrated that a simple extension of current DB-DC identifications derived explicitly from the Bayesian updating behavioral model can correct for much of the WTP bias. Additional results provided caution to viewing respondents as acting strategically toward the second bid. Finally, an empirical application confirmed the simulation outcomes. The second essay applied a hedonic property value model to a unique water quality (WQ) dataset for a year-round, urban, and coastal housing market in South Florida, and found evidence that various WQ measures affect waterfront housing prices in this setting. However, the results indicated that this relationship is not consistent across any of the six particular WQ variables used, and is furthermore dependent upon the specific descriptive statistic employed to represent the WQ measure in the empirical analysis. These results continue to underscore the need to better understand both the WQ measure and its statistical form homebuyers use in making their purchase decision. The third essay addressed a limitation to existing hurricane evacuation modeling aspects by developing a dynamic model of hurricane evacuation behavior. A household’s evacuation decision was framed as an optimal stopping problem where every potential evacuation time period prior to the actual hurricane landfall, the household’s optimal choice is to either evacuate, or to wait one more time period for a revised hurricane forecast. A hypothetical two-period model of evacuation and a realistic multi-period model of evacuation that incorporates actual forecast and evacuation cost data for my designated Gulf of Mexico region were developed for the dynamic analysis. Results from the multi-period model were calibrated with existing evacuation timing data from a number of hurricanes. Given the calibrated dynamic framework, a number of policy questions that plausibly affect the timing of household evacuations were analyzed, and a deeper understanding of existing empirical outcomes in regard to the timing of the evacuation decision was achieved.
author Czajkowski, Jeffrey Robert
author_facet Czajkowski, Jeffrey Robert
author_sort Czajkowski, Jeffrey Robert
title Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster
title_short Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster
title_full Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster
title_fullStr Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster
title_full_unstemmed Essays in Environmental Economic Valuation and Decision Making in the Presence of an Environmental Disaster
title_sort essays in environmental economic valuation and decision making in the presence of an environmental disaster
publisher FIU Digital Commons
publishDate 2007
url http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/49
http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=etd
work_keys_str_mv AT czajkowskijeffreyrobert essaysinenvironmentaleconomicvaluationanddecisionmakinginthepresenceofanenvironmentaldisaster
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