Tang Chuan, Associate Professor from College of Economics & Management of Huazhong Agricultural University (HAZU), as the first author, publishes a paper entitled “Rail Accidents and Property Values in the Era of Unconventional Energy Production” in Journal of Urban Economics.
The paper focuses on the economic costs of energy transportation in the US against the backdrop of domestic shale gas development and transformation of emerging energies supply in recent years. Great attention has been paid to 33 derailments involving hazardous materials in New York State between 2004 and 2013. Based on difference-in-differences (DiD), triple differences (DDD) and other statistical methods, the research analysis shows how rail accidents negatively affect the average values of nearby properties within up to five miles on both sides of railroads, substantiating that on average, a derailment depreciates housing values within a one-mile radius by 5%–8%. Meanwhile, results suggest that the rail transportation accidents cause an immediate but temporary shock to nearby property value—housing price rebounds to the pre-derailment level after approximately 480 days. Such rail accidents won’t impact all properties near railroads. A series of findings and conclusions enable a better coordinated quantification of the economic and welfare impacts exerted by rail transportation accidents, providing scientific evidence and decision base for the safety and regulation policy designed to serve the rail energy transportation which may be enhanced in the future.
Aside from Associate Professor Tang of HZAU, other contributors of the research include Doctor. Jefferey Czaikowski, director from Center for Insurance Policy and Research of National Association of Insurance Commissioners, USA, Prof. Martin Heintzelman from University of Delaware, Prof. Li Minghao from New Mexico State University and Doctor. Marilyn Montgomery from FCMC, LLC, USA.
Link of the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119020300668
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2020/1117/58804.shtml
Translated by: Wang Xu
Supervised by: Pan Buhan
