National monuments and economic growth in the American West.

National monuments in the United States are protected lands that contain historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, or other objects of historic or scientific interest. Their designations are often contentious. Opponents argue that monuments hurt local economies by limiting uses of public lands, while supporters counter that monuments create a new amenity-driven economy. We use panel data on all business establishments in the eight-state Mountain West region to estimate economic impacts of 14 monument designations over a 25-year period. We find that monuments increased the average number of establishments and jobs in areas near monuments; increased the average establishment growth rate; had no effect, positive or negative, on the number of jobs in establishments that existed pre-designation; and had no effect on mining and other industries that use public lands. On net, protecting lands as national monuments has been more help than hindrance to local economies in the American West.

Flood Risk Perceptions and Insurance Choice: Do Decisions in the Floodplain Reflect Overoptimism?

In the presence of rare disasters, risk perceptions may not always align with actual risks. These perceptions can nevertheless influence an individual's willingness to mitigate risks through activities such as purchasing flood insurance. In a survey of Maryland floodplain residents, we find that stated risk perceptions predict voluntary flood insurance take-up, while perceptions themselves varied widely among surveyed residents, owing in large part to differences in past flood experience. We use a formal test for overoptimism in risk perceptions and find that, on aggregate, floodplain residents are overly optimistic about flood risks.

Strategically placing green infrastructure: cost-effective land conservation in the floodplain.

Green infrastructure approaches have attracted increased attention from local governments as a way to lower flood risk and provide an array of other environmental services. The peer-reviewed literature, however, offers few estimates of the economic impacts of such approaches at the watershed scale. We estimate the avoided flood damages and the costs of preventing development of floodplain parcels in the East River Watershed of Wisconsin's Lower Fox River Basin. Results suggest that the costs of preventing conversion of all projected floodplain development would exceed the flood damage mitigation benefits by a substantial margin. However, targeting of investments to high-benefit, low-cost parcels can reverse this equation, generating net benefits. The analysis demonstrates how any flood-prone community can use a geographic-information-based model to estimate the flood damage reduction benefits of green infrastructure, compare them to the costs, and target investments to design cost-effective nonstructural flood damage mitigation policies.

The state of the great outdoors: charting recent trends, assessing funding needs, and understanding Americans' connection to nature.

In 2008 and 2009, the Outdoor Resources Review Group (ORRG), a private bipartisan panel of recreation professionals, public officials, and conservation advocates, assessed priorities, challenges, and opportunities in managing the nation's land and water resources. The 17-member panel, with U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) as honorary co-chairs, held a series of public meetings and focused workshops that culminated in a report presented to the Secretary of the Interior. In support of the ORRG effort, my colleagues and I at Resources for the Future conducted an independent assessment of trends in demand and supply of open space, parks, and public lands-as well as funding and financing of these resources-during the past quarter-century.