Opportunities for Self-Financing Flood Resilience Infrastructures in Boston, Massachusetts

Keywords

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Issue Date

2023-09-28

Language

en

Document type

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Title

ISSN

Volume

Issue

Startpage

Endpage

DOI

Abstract

Financing adaptations to climate change in the form of flood resilience infrastructures (FRIs), present financial challenges for local governments (Doeffinger & Rubinyi, 2023). Earlier studies have found that flood risk negatively affects housing prices (Bin & Landry, 2013). By reducing flood risk, housing prices are expected to increase because future damages are (expected to be) avoided (Kim, 2020). This research aims to provide a basis for arguing that FRIs can be (partially) self-financing through land value capture (LVC). If FRI implementation yields increases in sales prices, these increases could be captured to get a return on investments; much like in a virtuous circle (Lord et al., 2019). Through a hedonic price model with a difference-in-differences analysis, the effect of FRI construction is estimated. The model looks at sale transactions, with each sale being linked to its nearest FRI. A distinction is made between pre and post completion sales. The results show that there is a negative relationship between the distance to the nearest completed FRI project and the sale price per sf. On average, FRI projects increased post group sale prices by 2,7%. These findings are in line with earlier accounts (Kelly & Molina, 2023). Based on these results, Boston might consider to start implementing LVC instruments to capture these price increases.

Description

Citation

Faculty

Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen