Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5293-6180

Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Division of Resource Economics & Management

Committee Chair

Levan Elbakidze

Committee Member

Alan R. Collins

Committee Member

Heather M. Stephens

Committee Member

Daniel Grossman

Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of over 15,000 synthetic compounds widely used for their resistance to heat, stains, grease, and water. While central to many modern conveniences, ingestion of PFAS is increasingly linked to adverse human health outcomes and are now detected globally in drinking water systems. This dissertation investigates three interrelated aspects of PFAS contamination in U.S. drinking water: (1) socioeconomic determinants and spatial patterns of contamination; (2) the economic impacts of contamination on residential property values; and (3) the effect of inconsistent PFAS regulations on public trust in environmental governance.

Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3) along with demographic and economic datasets from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis, I examine the spatial distribution of PFAS contamination across public water systems (PWS) and association between socio-economic factors and drinking water PFAS contamination. Results identify four major contamination hotspots in the continental United States. PFAS levels are positively associated with PWS size, non-surface water sources, population and housing density, and regional industrial composition, indicating that PFAS pollution arises from both industrial activity and household consumption. Interestingly, non-white communities were found to have comparatively lower PFAS concentrations in their drinking water.

To evaluate the economic impact of drinking water contamination, Chapter 3 focuses on the 2014 discovery of PFAS in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Unlike other high-profile contamination events, this discovery received little media attention, though the sampling results were publicly available through the EPA’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) online database. Using housing transaction data from 2010 to 2019, I apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) hedonic pricing model to estimate the effect of PFAS contamination on property values. The analysis shows that homes located within the affected area lost approximately 5.7% of their market value, with this decline lasting for up to a year after the contamination was discovered. I verify that housing prices in the treatment and control areas followed similar trends before the contamination event and account for spatial spillover effects, where properties within one mile of the contaminated water system also experienced price declines. These results are robust across multiple model specifications, matched DiD estimations, and placebo tests, reinforcing the reliability of the findings.

Trust in regulatory institutions plays an important role in shaping public response to environmental health threats and the welfare impacts that follow. In Chapter 4, I quantify the welfare cost of regulatory trust erosion in the context of drinking water contamination in Horsham Township, Pennsylvania. We exploit revisions to the U.S. EPA’s Health Advisory (HA) thresholds for PFAS in drinking water, which introduced uncertainty regarding the credibility of federal guidance and the effectiveness of local mitigation efforts. Using more than 87,000 housing transactions from 2011 to 2022, we estimate a series of hedonic Difference-in-Differences models around three events, including initial PFAS detection in 2014, the EPA Health Advisory revision in 2016, and the completion of water treatment upgrades in 2019 that reduced PFAS in drinking water to undetectable levels. Housing prices showed no significant response to the initial PFAS detection, consistent with effective and transparent local remediation. However, prices dropped by approximately 3.6% following the 2016 HA revision even though the public water utility followed the same remediation strategy as before. Furthermore, prices did not recover even after 2019 despite achieving undetectable PFAS in drinking water. These results suggest that policy inconsistency and shifting federal guidance triggered persistent economic losses in the housing market through diminished confidence in regulatory credibility. Results highlight the importance of consistent and credible regulation for sustaining welfare and market stability in the aftermath of environmental contamination.

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