Laura Taylor
School Chair, Professor
- School of Economics
Overview
Dr. Taylor is Chair of the School of Economics and Interim Director of the Energy Policy and Innovation Center at Georgia Tech. Her recent research interests focus on the intersection of energy, environmental exposures and health. She has extensive experience in policy evaluation and the valuation of natural resources and the environment. Recent research applications include evaluating the impact of offshore wind energy in the U.S., identifying the impacts of air pollution exposures on health outcomes, improving benefits estimation for policies designed to reduce human mortality, examining household responses to water conservation policies, and evaluating the benefits of hazardous waste site cleanup. Her research has received funding from a variety of sources including the US EPA, USDA, US Department of Interior and the National Science Foundation. She is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and has held numerous advisory board positions. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2018, Dr. Taylor was Director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy at North Carolina State University.
- Ph.D., North Carolina State University
- M.A., Duke University
- B.S., University of North Carolina at Asheville
Interests
- Clean Energy
- Energy Economics
- Energy, Climate and Environmental Policy
- Environmental Economics
- Market-based Incentives
- Policy Analysis
Courses
- ECON-2106: Prin of Microeconomics
- ECON-4811: Special Topics
- ECON-6380: Economic of Environment
- ECON-8801: Special Topics
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
- Advances in Causal Inference at the Intersection of Air Pollution and Health Outcomes
In: Annual Review of Resource Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: October 2023
This article provides an overview of the recent economics literature analyzing the effect of air pollution on health outcomes. We review the common approaches to measuring and modeling air pollution exposures and the epidemiological and biological literature on health outcomes that undergird federal air regulations in the United States. The article contrasts the methods used in the epidemiology literature with the causal inference framework used in economics. In particular, we review the common sources of estimation bias in epidemiological approaches that the economics literature has sought to overcome with research designs that take advantage of natural experiments. We review new promising research designs for estimating concentration-response functions and identify areas for further research.
- Utility-Scale Solar Farms and Agricultural Land Values
In: Land Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2023
Property value models are used to examine how utility-scale, ground-mount solar farms affect nearby agricultural land values. Results indicate that solar farms do not have direct positive or negative spillover effects on nearby agricultural land values. However, results also suggest that solar farm construction may indirectly affect agricultural land values by signaling the land’s suitability for future solar development. Specifically, results indicate that proximity of agricultural land to electric transmission lines may be positively valued after a solar farm is constructed nearby.
- Water Use in the Landscape: A Comparison of Irrigation Technologies and Water Quality on Behavior
In: Water Resources Research [Peer Reviewed]
Date: September 2021
Reclaimed wastewater for outdoor irrigation purposes is an effective tool for conserving potable water sources and reducing effluent discharge from wastewater treatment facilities. Despite its “green” attributes, we find outdoor watering behavior that is consistent with households treating reclaimed water as a lower quality substitute to potable water for outdoor residential irrigation. Using unique microdata, we estimate the demand for outdoor water and find that after controlling for differences in irrigation water prices, households using reclaim water and households without automatic irrigation systems consume substantially less water in the landscape.
- Randomized Safety Inspections and Risk Exposure on the Job: Quasi-experimental Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life
In: American Economic Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: November 2019
The value of a statistical life (VSL) is a critical driver of estimated benefits for federal policies designed to improve human health, safety, and environmental exposures. The vast majority of empirical evidence on the magnitude of the VSL arises from hedonic wage models that have been plagued by measurement error and omitted variables. To address these limitations, this paper employs randomly assigned workplace safety inspections to instrument for plant-level risks in a quasi-experimental design. We provide credible causal evidence for the existence of compensating wages for fatality risks and estimate a VSL between $(2016)8 million and $(2016)10 million.
- The Amenity Costs of Offshore Wind Farms: Evidence from a Choice Experiment
In: Energy Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
We conduct a choice-experiment with individuals that recently rented a vacation property along the North Carolina coastline to assess the impacts of a utility-scale wind farm on their rental decisions. Visualizations were presented to survey respondents that varied both the number of turbines and their proximity to shore. Results indicate that there is not a scenario for which respondents would be willing to pay more to rent a home with turbines in view, as compared to the baseline view with no turbines in sight. Further, there is a substantial portion of the survey population that would change their vacation destination if wind farms were placed within visual range of the beach. The rental discounts required to attract the segment of the survey population most amenable to viewing wind farms still indicate that rental value losses of up to 10% are possible if a utility-scale wind farm is placed within 8 miles of shore.
- Disentangling the Property Value Impacts of Environmental Contamination from Locally Undesirable Land Uses: Implications for Measuring Post-Cleanup Stigma
In: Journal of Urban Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: May 2016
This research seeks to identify the impact of environmental contamination on residential housing prices separate from land use externalities associated with the contaminated sites. This is possible in an empirical model that considers the influence of uncontaminated commercial properties on home values concurrently with contaminated property influences. Our approach addresses an important source of omitted variable bias that has not been fully recognized in the literature, and it allows identification of stigma effects in a way not possible in past studies. We estimate difference-in-differences models that pool observations across a metro area and across time, as well as repeat sales models that rely on multiple transactions per home. Results indicate that environmental contamination more than doubles the negative influence commercial properties have on neighboring residential home values. Furthermore, we find little evidence of stigma effects once a contaminated site is remediated. The negative spillover effects associated with remediated contaminated sites are largely indistinguishable from the spillover effects from commercial properties with no known contamination.
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
- Advances in Causal Inference at the Intersection of Air Pollution and Health Outcomes
In: Annual Review of Resource Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: October 2023
This article provides an overview of the recent economics literature analyzing the effect of air pollution on health outcomes. We review the common approaches to measuring and modeling air pollution exposures and the epidemiological and biological literature on health outcomes that undergird federal air regulations in the United States. The article contrasts the methods used in the epidemiology literature with the causal inference framework used in economics. In particular, we review the common sources of estimation bias in epidemiological approaches that the economics literature has sought to overcome with research designs that take advantage of natural experiments. We review new promising research designs for estimating concentration-response functions and identify areas for further research.
- Utility-Scale Solar Farms and Agricultural Land Values
In: Land Economics [Peer Reviewed]
Date: August 2023
Property value models are used to examine how utility-scale, ground-mount solar farms affect nearby agricultural land values. Results indicate that solar farms do not have direct positive or negative spillover effects on nearby agricultural land values. However, results also suggest that solar farm construction may indirectly affect agricultural land values by signaling the land’s suitability for future solar development. Specifically, results indicate that proximity of agricultural land to electric transmission lines may be positively valued after a solar farm is constructed nearby.