Three Essays on Environmental Economics

Abstract

In Chapter 1, I estimate the impact of energy insecurity on self-reported health risks using local oil and gas prices as instruments. Greater energy insecurity significantly raises self-reported health risks, with mechanisms operating through high costs, outages, and extreme weather. Cold indoor conditions are more dangerous than heat; cold regions are most affected, especially among older and low-income households. Declines in energy prices do not offset risks from severe weather. In chapter 2, I exploit the staggered rollout of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) updates and event-time differences around map-effective dates to measure effects on premiums, coverage, and mobility. Floodplain reclassification lowers average premiums by about 5.5% and raises insurance take-up by about 10%. Gross migration increases by around 10.4 movers per 1,000 exemptions, driven by roughly 5.1 in-movers and 5.4 out-movers per 1,000, while net migration remains near zero. The information and the premium shocks operate jointly: lender compliance channels reclassification into new-policy entry rather than retention with short-run premium compression; price sensitivity is modest and becomes more negative post-reclassification; and disaster or claims salience together with house-price declines shifts mobility toward higher-income, smaller households while reducing net additions. These results show how public risk information can improve near-term risk sharing and enable orderly spatial reallocation, while revealing a tension between expanded coverage and long-run affordability. In Chapter 3, I explain the gross but not net migration result by analyzing who moves, why flows rise, and where people are redirected. Responses are stronger in high-mobility, renter-dense, educated metro areas and weaker among older or partnered populations. A Kitagawa-style decomposition attributes changes to higher within-group migration propensities rather than compositional shifts. An origin-destination gravity model shows remapping redirects flows along existing demographic and market structures, illuminating an “information-to-compliance” pathway in climate governance.