Research

Published Papers  

Air Quality and Asthma Hospitalization: Evidence of PM2.5 Concentrations in Pennsylvania Counties (with Alan Collins) (Here)

According to the World Health Organization, 235 million people around the world currently suffer from asthma, which includes approximately 25 million in the United States. There is substantial epidemiological evidence indicating linkages between outdoor air pollution and asthma symptoms, more specifically between particulate matter and asthma. Using county level data for 2003-2011, a spatial panel framework is imposed based upon prevailing wind patterns to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of PM2.5 pollution on asthma hospitalization in Pennsylvania. This model controls for population density, precipitation, smoking rate, and population demographics. Results show that PM2.5 concentrations as measured at the county level has positive direct and indirect effects on asthma hospitalization. A one-unit increase in PM2.5 will add, on average $1.3M ($943,320 direct and $404,280 indirect) to the total annual asthma hospitalization costs in Pennsylvania. The study highlights the need for a more realistic and accurate impact analysis of Ambient Air Pollution on asthma that reflects the impacts on neighboring regions as well. In case of the health related effects of PM2.5 pollution and capture its spillover effect, the study suggests considering a precise algorithm to identify the neighbors. 

Drinking Water Quality Impacts on Health Care Expenditures in the United States (with Fahad Alzahrani and Alan Collins) (Here)

This paper explores the relationship between episodes of contaminated drinking water and health care expenditures in the United States. The analysis relies on panel data from the 48 contiguous states from 2000 to 2011. We use the population served by public water systems that violate health-based standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act as a proxy for contaminated drinking water. We estimate spatial and non-spatial models and control for factors that may affect per capita health care expenditures including variables that reflect air quality violations along with ability to pay plus demand for and supply of health care services. The results from a Spatial Durbin Model indicate that a 1% decrease in the percentage of population exposed to drinking water quality violations is associated with reductions in in-state and regional effects equal to 0.005% ($0.32) and 0.035% ($2.26) of per capita health care expenditures, respectively. Drinking water violations have a larger impact on expenditures than air quality violations (whose effects are not statistically different from zero). However, compared to other factors, such as Medicare enrollment and income, the impact of these violations on health care expenditures is relatively small. We  find that regional health care expenditure impacts from drinking water violations are substantially greater than in-state impacts. Thus, a regional approach is recommended to addressing drinking water quality improvements. 

The Impact of Naloxone Access Laws on Opioid Overdose deaths in the U.S. (with Alan Collins and Daniel Grossman) (Here)

Opioid overdoses are the leading cause of unintentional death in the U.S. This research investigates the effects of state-level Naloxone access laws on opioid overdose death rates. Spatial difference-in-differences models reveal that no matter how the access law is measured (either as a binary variable, number of days after the law, or differentiated between access law provisions), the only consistent result is positive indirect effects on overdose death rates. These results indicate that Naloxone access provisions have regional impacts via spillover effects in neighboring states. Looking across multiple provisions, our  findings show that, except for third party authorization, there are significant positive effects on overdose death rates. When access laws are evaluated in isolation of any other state level policy response to opioids, increasing access to Naloxone does not reduce overdose death rates, but leads to an overall increase. Thus, the moral hazard problem stemming from this public health policy may be an accurate assessment of the outcome.

Charges for Water and Access: What Explains the Differences among West Virginian Municipalities?  (with Alan Collins) (Here) 

Examining both spatial and non-spatial econometric analyses with a dataset of 125 municipal water utilities, we investigate utility cost and community factors that explain variation in residential user charges and monthly access charges for water. The results of water charges model are consistent with the theory of water cost determination as water source, debt, and economies of size plus scale influence residential consumer charges for water. Both models (water charges and minimum monthly access) displayed positive spillover effects, although the only variable in either model with a significant indirect effect is water charges on minimum monthly access charges. Based upon model results, ground water use by utilities lowers water charges and is estimated to save residential customers in West Virginia over $3.6 million annually. West Virginia households typically pay far below the OECD standard of 3 to 5% of household income for municipal water, which may explain why socioeconomic factors do not influence minimum monthly charges for access.

Woody Biomass Processing and Rural Regional Development (with Randall Jackson, Péter Járosi and Amir Neto) (Here) 

This paper reports on economic and environmental impacts of introducing woody biomass processing in an economically distressed area in central Appalachia, one of the more heavily forested areas in the U.S. Woody biomass is a readily available unconventional energy source that has the potential to boost the rural region’s economy. We use a static regional computable general equilibrium model to assess regional economic impacts of two different WBP production pathways, biomass to ethanol and biomass to biofuel via fast pyrolysis. In an economy with a workforce approaching 160,000, we find that introducing woody biomass ethanol or fast pyrolysis processing would increase regional out- put by 0.45% and 0.78%, boost jobs by 0.13% and 0.20%, and increase income by 0.16% to 0.26%, respectively. The results from the environmental assessment show that the ethanol pathway is substantially more environmentally friendly than the fast pyrolysis pathway.

Woody Biomass Processing: Potential Economic Impacts on Rural Regions (with Randall Jackson and Amir Neto) (Here) 

This paper estimates the economic and environmental impacts of introducing woody biomass processing (WBP) in a rural area in central Appalachia. WBP is among the most promising additions to energy generation portfolios for reducing import dependency and at the same time providing economic opportunity to stimulate regional economies, especially in rural regions where economic development options are often limited. We use an input-output framework to assess regional economic impacts of introducing WBP under three different pathways, fast pyrolysis, ethanol and coal/biomass to liquids. Based on an analysis of local biomass feedstock supply and using the results of life cycle assessments to parameterize the three production functions, we find that the proposed WBP will increase the regional output by $138.1 to $333.3 million dollars; it will in- crease income by $17.32 to $51.31 million dollars and employment by 218.1 to 1127.8 jobs in the region. Of these impacts, the direct portions are 63% to 77% of the total impact, depending on the chosen pathway. The results from the accompanying environmental assessment show that only the ethanol pathway has both economic and environmental benefits. 

Scientific output: labor or capital intensive? An analysis for selected countries (with Amir Neto) (Here) 

Scientific research contributes to sustainable economic growth environments. Hence, policy-makers should understand how the different inputs—namely labor and capital—are related to a country’s scientific output. This paper addresses this issue by estimating output elasticities for labor and capital using a panel of 31 countries in nine years. Due to the nature of scientific output, we also use spatial econometric models to take into account the spillover effects from knowledge produced as well as labor and capital. The results show that capital elasticity is closer to the labor elasticity. The results suggest a decreasing return to scale production of scientific output. The spatial model points to negative spillovers from capital expenditure and no spillovers from labor or the scientific output. 

Voting Behavior on Carbon Pollution from Power Plants (with Joshua Hall and Caleb Stair) (Here) 

Environmental regulation is a polarizing issue. In 2014, a bill came to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives that would limit the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency. This empirical note identifies the characteristics that influenced the voting behavior of House Representatives on this bill. Political party, educational background, the location quotient of the mining industry in the representative’s state, and the amount of emissions in the Representative’s state are considered. A member’s political party is the primary factor influencing voting behavior but the location quotient of the mining industry also plays an important role. 

Modeling the Effect of Advertising on Demand for Dairies in Iran (Case Study: Milk Industries of Iran) (with Seyed Safdar Hosseini) (In Persian) 

This study develops an approach to obtain effects of advertising on the demand for dairies in Iran when consumption of dairies has a peculiar constructive role in social health and in nourishment. Investment in advertising of dairy industry was applied as a new policy in the country's Third Developing Program to enhance dairy consumption. Since more than 40 present of milk enter milk industries is absorbed by Pegah Firm factories, this Firm was selected as the major corporation in milk industries for a preparation of useful strategies in people's dairy consumption. Using the constant parameter model and OLS method, the most important factors influencing the consumer dairy demand in Iran were determined. Results of the study indicated that advertising has a positive and significant impact on consumer demand for Pegah products. The estimated impact parameters of advertising variable for milk, yoghourt, cheese and Doogh were 0.29, 0.12, 0.3 and 0.23, respectively, while the most important factors influencing the demand of Pegah products were identified as price, income, price of substitute and complimentary goods, population being urban or rural and populations of the age between 10-20 and 45-65 years.. Based on the results of the study, marketing decisions, as well as advertising policies in Pegah Milk Industries were the effective policies in increasing consumer demand. 

Estimation of Monopoly Welfare Loss in Iranian Milk Production Industry (with Habib Shahbazi, Mohamad Kavousi, Gholamreza Peykani, Samane Abedi) (In Persian)

The aim of this study is to estimate the fluid milk demand function and calculation of Welfare Loss due to monopoly power in milk production industry in 13 provinces from 2001 to 2005(65 observation). In this study, after Estimation of milk demand function, Welfare Loss due to monopoly power in fluid milk market via SCP model was calculated. The results revealed that milk price had negative effect on milk demand. On the other hand, price of substituted potables and advertisement costs had positive impact on fluid milk demand. Results indicate that welfare loss during 2001- 2003 is increasing but from 2003 to 2005 has had a decreasing trend. 

Selected Work in Progress 

Long-term debt in water utilities: Does ownership matter? Evidence of West Virginia Utilities (with Jing Chen and Collin Hodges)

Local governments provide a wide range of services and infrastructure such as water, sewer, and storm water to their residents. In many jurisdictions, utilities are the most capital-intensive government function and the most visible one. Long-term debt is an indicator of utilities’ financial health. Currently, local governments in the U.S. hold more than 1.7 trillion long-term debt. Particularly, due to population loss and population density, West Virginia water system is under financial constrains more than other states. By investigating important factors that explain long-term debt, we focus on the effects of different types of ownership on water utilities’ long-term debt in West Virginia, where common types of water utility ownership includes municipalities, public service districts, private utilities, and water associations.  Results show the public service districts and municipalities have higher long term debt.

Regional Impacts of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) on U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths (with Brian Cushing and Juan Tomas Sayago Gomez ) 

With the explosive rise in opioid overdose mortality in the United States, efforts to curb demand and supply of prescription and non-prescription opioids have been on the rise. One such program aimed at curbing mainly the supply-side of prescription drugs in states is the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). According to the Department of Justice, all U.S. states had fully operational PDMPs as of April 2017. Theoretically, PDMPs can have a positive or a negative relationship with overdose deaths. Impacts could be positive because PDMPs restrict doctor or pharmacy shopping, restricting the supply of prescription opioids in the market, hence the possibility of death by overdose. Impacts could, however, have a potential negative effect on overdose deaths due to the effects from users substituting cheaper non-prescription drugs like heroin. While research aimed at assessing the effectiveness of PDMPs has begun, few have adequately addressed the heterogeneity in PDMPs, and none have accounted for spatial dependencies and spillover effects to and from neighboring states.  The aim of this research is to remedy these gaps in existing research. Our study controls for this fact. We will use the Spatial Durbin Model and the Spatial Durbin Error Model to quantify empirically the direct effects and indirect effects of PDMP on overdose deaths. The direct effects estimate the impact of PDMP on overdose deaths within a particular state, while indirect effects estimate the impact of PDMP on overdose deaths in neighboring states. The results indicate the implementation of PDMPs in states have not helped to decrease the overdose death rates. While mandatory access to PDMPs shows increasing both illicit drug overdose death rates and total drug overdose death rates.  

The Impact of Oil and Gas Development on Opioid Overdose Deaths in the U.S. (with Brian Cushing and Juan Tomas Sayago Gomez) 

This paper aims at measuring the effects of oil and gas development on a state’s opioid overdose death rates. We estimate a spatial panel model to account for spatial spillovers and spatial and time fixed effects. To account for mining, oil, and gas development we follow the work of Rajbhandari (2017) and estimate proxies for change in percentage of the sectoral employment over time. Our results point towards an effective decrease in death rates in times of boom and increases in times of bust.

The Hospital and Healthcare Market in Rural and Urban Communities (with Alison Davis)

The long-term goal of this integrated project is to improve the understanding of the role of healthcare and a healthy workforce as determinants of local economic development in rural/urban communities. Specifically, our working hypothesis is that while healthcare itself is an important driver of local economic growth in rural communities, it is also a significant factor in both firm and residential location decisions. Through this research, we will better understand how a change in the number and type of healthcare businesses impacts employment and wages within both healthcare and non-healthcare related industries in rural/urban communities across the United States.

Water Systems and Health Inequalities in the Rural South (with Alison Davis)

Water infrastructure is a rural community’s most important investment for illness prevention. Each water system must follow the Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulations for testing and reporting on water quality.  While there is a number of studies that investigate the impacts of water quality on human health, our focus is on the immediate health effects of consuming improperly treated water include infections caused by microbes (viruses, bacteria, and parasites), which can result in stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, and kidney failure and hepatitis. We will analyze how water quality issues might differentially affect persistently poor communities and communities of color.