2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Modeling Linkages Between Land Development And Water Quality in Freshwater Lakes
| Project/Area Number |
20K22091
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| Research Institution | Kobe University |
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Principal Investigator |
Wolf David 神戸大学, 経済学研究科, 講師 (60878271)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-09-11 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Water Quality Valuation / Housing Prices / Apartment Rental Values / Flood Risk |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I have made advancements on two fronts. First, I have two papers that are currently under review that value water quality in freshwater lakes across the United States. In both studies, I develop new econometric methods which help to identify the impact that water quality has on homeowner well-being. I specifically focus on improving methods aimed at valuing large changes in water quality, which has been a difficult task within the hedonic literature. My goal is to re-apply these methods to value environmental amenities/disamenities in Japan in the future.
On the second front, I am working on a project that examines how apartment rental prices in Japan respond to changes in flood risk. This is a slight departure from my original goal, but I have found that the construction of upstream dams positively influences apartment values. I am currently using data from Fukuoka Prefecture before and after the 2018 July floods as a case study. The data was collected from a real-estate company in Japan (athome.co.jp), while the spatial data was collected from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. I expect to have a working draft of the paper by August 2021. I also plan to present this work at the Society of Environmental Economics and Policy.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
For the most part, my research agenda progressed smoothly. I had to deviate from my original plans as the budget I allocated was not enough to purchase the data I needed. Despite this setback, I have continued to work on water quality issues in the US, while also researching issues related to flood risk in Japan. The funding from the JSPS has allowed me to purchase a new computer as well as statistical software that has helped me immensely.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the future I plan to publish my two working papers that investigate water quality issues in the United States. One paper is on its second round of revisions, while the other paper has been under review for 2 months. I am hopeful these two projects will be published within the next 1 - 2 years.
Aside from these research projects, I will continue to work on issues related to flood risk in Japan. The apartment dataset I collected, cleaned, and analyzed is nationwide in scope and spans over 4 years. I am currently using it to analyze flood risk in Fukuoka, though I may extend this application to other areas in Japan.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I was unable to use all of the money allocated in the first-year for two reasons. First, the data I was originally planning to purchase exceeded my total budget. Second, I planned to use some of the funding to travel to international conferences. Due to COVID-19, however, international travel was not possible. I therefore ended up presenting at two international conferences via ZOOM.
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Research Products
(4 results)
