Full Citation

Title: Essays in Energy and Environmental Economics

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2018

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Abstract: The chapters in this dissertation focus on environmental economics but vary in their contributions to current environmental economics literature. The second chapter shows that coal stockpiles accumulated through contractual obligations during periods of low natural gas prices restricts the responsiveness of coal-fired plants when relative coal-to-gas prices change. It implies that the social marginal benefit associated with higher price of coal can be smaller than what we would expect in the short run. In the other two chapters, I revisit moving costs, a central concept in non-market valuation. Specifically, I emphasize the role that moving costs play in household migration and their impact on households’ exposure to local air pollution. In chapter 3, I find that low-income households face higher moving costs. I run simulation models to show that the heterogeneous moving costs can explain why a disproportionate number of low-income people live near undesirable land uses. Chapter 4 offers a complementary argument to Chapter 3. I use a natural break in moving costs among Californian homeowners to test if lower moving costs cause households to move to cleaner neighborhoods in terms of air pollution. I do not find such evidence from the public-use census data set, but the low geographic resolution of the data might have driven the result.

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Authors: Lee, Sul-Ki

Institution: Colorado School of Mines

Department: Mineral and Energy Economics

Advisor: Peter Manilof

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Publisher Location: Golden, Colorado

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Natural Resource Management, Other

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