Green Neighbors, Greener Neighborhoods: Peer Effects in Residential Green Investments
Abstract: Utilizing a nearest-neighbor research design, I find that households exposed to green neighbors within 0.1 miles are 1.6 times more likely to make their homes green within a year than the unexposed households. The exposure also increases the likelihood of multi-property owners greening their faraway secondary properties, indicating that information transmission, not local characteristics, drives the effect. While financial benefits of green homes—house prices, electricity savings, and regulatory incentives—strengthen the peer effects, pro-environmental household preferences do not. An information-cost-based theory model explains the findings and emphasizes that aligning green subsidies with peer effects can accelerate residential green investments.
Awards: Semifinalist for 2024 FMA Annual Meeting Best Paper Awards, Best Paper Award - 14th Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference PhD Symposium
Selected Conference Presentations: New York Fed and NYU Summer Climate Finance Conference (Poster), 2024 Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making (Poster), AEA 2025 (Poster),* 2nd Women in Central Banking Workshop at Dallas Fed (Poster), European Winter Finance Conference (EWFC) 2025,* FMA 2024, 3rd CEMLA/Dallas Fed/IBEFA Financial Stability Workshop, 2024 CEMA Annual Conference at Boston University, IWFSAS 2024 at UBC Sauder, CEPR-ESSEC-Luxembourg Conference on Sustainable Financial Intermediation, 30th Annual Meeting of the German Finance Association, 2nd Durham Finance Job Market Paper Conference, 31st Finance Forum - the Annual Meeting of the Spanish Finance Association PhD Mentoring Day, 18th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association, 13th European Meeting of the Urban Economics Association. (*Scheduled)
