Examining Home Values as an Expression of Citizen Preference for Local Emergency Management Program

The problem addressed here was that studies to date have yielded conflicting results about the relationship between public good provision at the local level, and provision by central metropolitan governments, and local home values. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between per capita spending at either the local or metropolitan level on emergency management programs and local median home values. This quantitative study employed a multilevel modeling technique. The level one and two explanatory variables were per capita spending on emergency management programs by local jurisdictions and per capita spending on emergency management programs by the principal city in the metropolitan statistical area. Control variables included mean travel time to work, expenditure per pupil on public education, and local per capita property tax revenues. The sample included 260 incorporated places surrounding the 15 largest principal cities in the United States. No statistically significant relationship could be found between per capita spending on emergency management programs at the local level and local median home values. The addition of per capita principal city spending on emergency management programs as a variable did slightly increase the fit of the model, but the relationship was not statistically significant, F=2.40, p < .05. The need for a better understanding of citizen preferences in the field of emergency management, as outlined in the problem and purpose statements of this study, still exists. Future quantitative studies should have a more geographically narrow focus, and future quantitative studies should focus on the relationship between citizen preferences and local practitioner decisions in the field of public goods.