The Value of Disappearing Beaches: A Hedonic Pricing Model with Endogenous Beach Width

Abstract

Beach nourishment is used to rebuild eroding beaches with sand dredged from other locations. Previous studies indicate that beach width positively affects coastal property values, but studies ignore the dynamic features of beaches and the feedback that nourishment has on shoreline retreat. This paper corrects for the resulting attenuation and endogeneity bias in a hedonic property value model by instrumenting for beach width using spatially varying coastal geological features.