Christopher Timmins , a professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will lead a seminar on residential market responses to certain toxins in drinking water.
His free talk - based on the recent research paper "Imperceptible Contaminants and Housing Markets: Evidence from Local News" - is scheduled for noon on Friday, Feb. 6, in 157 Hosler Building at Penn State University Park. The event is part of a spring seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI).
Timmins co-authored the paper, which centers on television and radio news coverage of contamination from perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, originating at the Chemours Fayetteville plant in North Carolina. The contamination affected Wilmington, North Carolina, which saw housing prices lower than those in comparable regions after 2017 media reports about the pollution, according to the paper.
"These results highlight the critical role of information in shaping public perception and market valuations of otherwise-hidden environmental risks," the authors wrote.
Known as "forever chemicals" for their longevity in the environment and the human body, PFAS appear in a wide variety of industrial and consumer products. Epidemiological evidence suggests greater exposure may be linked to health effects ranging from higher cholesterol to lower birth weights and some cancers.
Timmins, the Gary J. Gorman Affordable Housing Professor in the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the Wisconsin School of Business, specializes in urban and environmental economics. His interests include industrial organization, development and regional economics.
A research associate in the Environmental and Energy Economics group at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Timmins has served as a reviewer for environmental, urban and applied-microeconomics journals. Timmins' recent research includes costs associated with exposure to poor air quality; benefits associated with remediating brownfields and toxic waste under the federal Superfund program; and causes and consequences of "environmental injustice."
In 2021, Timmins was named a fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He holds a bachelor's degree in international economics from Georgetown University and a doctoral degree in economics from Stanford University.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, EEEPI operates as a University-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the University and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.
