Research on Economics of Land Cleanup and Waste Management

Estimating the Social Benefits and Costs of Land Cleanup and Reuse

EPA supports research to gain insight into the nature and magnitude of costs and benefits associated with EPA land cleanup and reuse activities and programs. These programs manage environmental problems that are characterized by unique qualities including a wide diversity of contaminants and affected media, incomplete information that can lead to stigma, and significant events that transpire over the course of a sometimes lengthy timeline. These and other qualities present special challenges for economic analysis. Economists frequently turn to the stated preference (survey-based) and property value approaches to estimate the social benefits of such programs.

Within EPA, the National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE) has pursued research focused on property value analysis to measure the health, aesthetic, and other benefits of land cleanup and reuse that accrue to the owners of properties located near remediated sites. In particular, NCEE has assessed the benefits of preventing or cleaning up releases from underground storage tanks by using property value analysis. EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) also supports economic research on this topic.

• Handbook on the Benefits, Costs, and Impacts of Land Cleanup and Reuse, 2011. EPA-240-R-11-001.
• Workshop: Methods for Estimating the Social Benefits of EPA Land Cleanup and Reuse Programs, 2006

Related NCEE Working Papers and Publications

• “The Impacts of Underground Petroleum Releases on a Homeowner’s Decision to Sell: A Difference-in-Differences Approach.” Dennis B. Guignet, Adan L. Martinez-Cruz. NCEE Working Paper 2016-03.
• “Do Housing Values respond to Underground Storage Tank Releases? Evidence from High-Profile Cases across the United States.” Dennis Guignet, Robin R. Jenkins, Matthew Ranson, Patrick J. Walsh. NCEE Working Paper 2016-01.
• “Prevention, Cleanup and Reuse Benefits from the Federal UST Program.” Robin R. Jenkins, Dennis Guignet, and Patrick J. Walsh. NCEE Working Paper 2014-05.
• “What Do Property Values Really Tell Us? A Hedonic Study of Underground Storage Tanks.” Dennis Guignet. Land Economics 98(2), 2013.
• A hedonic analysis of the impact of LUST sites on house prices.” Jeffrey Zabel and Dennis Guignet. Resource and Energy Economics 34(4), 2012.
• “The impacts of pollution and exposure pathways on home values: A stated preference analysis,” Dennis Guignet. Ecological Economics 82: 53-63, 2012.
• “ U.S. Emergency Response and Removal: Superfund’s Overlooked Cleanup Program.” Robin Jenkins, Heather Klemick, Elizabeth Kopits and Alex Marten. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 6(2), 2012.

Additional Research Funded by OLEM

• "Does cleanup of hazardous waste sites raise housing values? Evidence of spatially localized benefits.” Shanti Gamper-Rabindran and Chris Timmins. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 65(3): 345–360, 2013.
• “The Value of Brownfield Remediation.” Kevin Haninger, Lala Ma and Chris Timmins. NBER Working Paper No. 20296, 2014.

Hazardous and Solid Waste Management

EPA supports research on hazardous and solid waste management. Recently, NCEE has examined the state and federal regulatory structure for waste management, as well as environmental justice issues associated with hazardous and solid waste.  

Recent NCEE Working Papers and Publications

• “The Evolution of Solid and Hazardous Waste.” Robin Jenkins, Elizabeth Kopits and David Simpson. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 3(1), 2009.
• “An Examination of the Correlation between Race and State Hazardous and Solid Waste Taxes.” Robin Jenkins and Kelly Maguire. The Political Economy of Environmental Justice. Spencer Banzhaf (editor). Stanford University Press, 2012