Three Quasi-Experimental and Experimental Papers in Environmental Economics

Abstract

This dissertation utilizes quasi-experimental and experimental techniques to contribute to the literature on environmental and resource economics in three distinct ways but with the overarching goal of demonstrating the usefulness of experimental techniques to explore topics related to the environment. First, chapter one demonstrates the feasibility and draw-backs of using a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity approach to analyze the ozone regulation contained in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Chapter two explores the impacts how economic and social-psychology factors affect the adoption of an environmental technology, namely compact fluorescent light bulbs. In order to consider these factors, chapter two utilizes a large-scale field experiment informed by a theoretical model of adoption. Finally, chapter three utilizes a field experiment designed for a large apartment management company, to advance the literature on presumed (opt-out) and explicit (opt-in) consent procedures by exploring a willingness to pay to forgo the decision to opt-out of the installation of an environmental technology.