Rare Events and Risk Perception: Evidence from Fukushima Accident
47 Pages Posted: 11 Mar 2016
Date Written: March 9, 2016
Abstract
We study changes in nuclear-risk perception following the Fukushima nuclear accident of March 2011. Using an exhaustive registry of individual housing transactions in England and Wales between 2007 and 2014, we implement a difference-in-difference strategy and compare housing prices in at-risk areas to areas further away from nuclear sites before and after Fukushima incident. We find a persistent price malus of about 3.5% in response to the Fukushima accident for properties close to nuclear plants. We show evidence that this price malus can be interpreted as a change in nuclear-risk perception. In addition, the price decrease is much larger for high-value properties within neighborhoods, and deprived zones in at-risk areas are more responsive to the accident. We discuss various theoretical channels that could explain these results.
Keywords: Hedonic prices, housing markets, risk perception, nuclear power
JEL Classification: D80, Q51, Q53, R21, R23, R31
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