Shotaro Nakamura, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk "Monetary and non-monetary barriers to accessing environmental public benefit programs: experimental evidence from California," at noon on Friday, Sept. 25, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State's University Park campus.
The event is part of a fall seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI). The talk is free and open to the public.
About the lecture
Air pollution can negatively affect anyone who is exposed to it. However, both exposure and adoption of mitigation strategies vary with socioeconomic status where those with fewer resources deal with the most risk, Nakamura said.
"Public benefit programs, such as subsidized air purifiers, can address these disparities, but administrative 'ordeal' costs may screen out the very households they target," Nakamura said. "We conducted a randomized controlled trial with approximately 90,000 California households, mailing letters inviting residents to apply for a subsidized portable air purifier, while experimentally varying the subsidy rate and ordeal costs."
Results reveal that application rates are not linear in price but have elasticities related to the ordeal costs of completing the application.
"A longer form reduces applications by 20% and proof of residence by 25%, with suggestive evidence of larger deterrence among disadvantaged households," Nakamura said. "Streamlined, highly subsidized programs maximize take-up, while ordeal costs are unlikely to improve targeting toward vulnerable populations."
Nakamura received his doctorate in economics from the University of California, Davis. He is interested in the demand for environmental goods and services in both developed and developing-economy contexts. He studies how information and policy interventions help address frictions and failures in markets for tools to defend individuals against environmental degradation.
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.
