Green Neighbors, Greener Neighborhoods
Abstract: Are households' residential green certification decisions causally influenced by their green neighbors? A nearest-neighbor design based on within-0.1-miles neighbors shows that households with green neighbors are 1.8 times more likely to obtain a green certificate within one year than those without such neighbors. The green neighbors also increase the likelihood of multi-property owners certifying their secondary properties in faraway neighborhoods. The influence of neighbors is more pronounced where community interactions are stronger and where green homes fetch financial benefits. Furthermore, closer neighbors display higher certification and lender commonality. These findings align with beneficial information transmission, but not with peer mimicking.
Awards: Best Paper Award - 14th Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference PhD Symposium
Selected Conference Presentations: 2024 Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making (Poster),* 2nd Durham Finance Job Market Paper Conference,* NYU-New York Fed Summer Climate Finance Conference (Poster),* 13th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association,* 2024 CEMA Annual Conference,* 31st Finance Forum - the Annual Meeting of the Spanish Finance Association PhD Mentoring Day.* (*Scheduled)