| This dissertation consists of three essays on microeconomic approaches to public goods problems. Each essay pushes the frontier of standard environmental policy analysis by exploring individuals' adaptation to and substitution for public goods. They also demonstrate different research approaches. One chapter is largely empirical econometrics, another is primarily theoretical microeconomics, and the third describes a new survey and its pretest results. Using these different methods, each chapter extends and contributes to the current microeconomic literature on public goods in new directions valuable to public policy analysis.; The first essay examines the externalities of neighbors in a geographically complex urban setting. A spatial econometric model estimates the effects of geographic barriers on demographic sorting patterns in Chicago. Robust to several spatial structures, certain barriers (especially railroads, parks, and industrial corridors) appear associated with greater demographic disparity between neighbors. The second essay develops a theoretical model for genetic resistance commons, in both agricultural and public health settings. Harms from accelerating genetic resistance in pests might be mitigated through producer-sponsored programs under different market structures. A monopoly producer of biotech inputs has limited incentives to conserve the resistance resource, possibly enhanced by allowing it to mandate abatement behavior from its customers. The third chapter presents an innovative survey instrument and preliminary data for a study of individual valuation of a broad array of cultural goods. The validity of such a survey-based approach to eliciting public goods values and substitutability is assessed. A few important modifications notwithstanding, the results of the convenience sample offer strong support for an informative instrument. |
