SelectedWorks - Corey Lang

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Selected Works of Corey Lang

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I am a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island. I have research interests in non-market valuation, voting, energy, and climate change.

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About Corey Lang

I am a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Rhode Island. I have research interests in non-market valuation, voting, energy, and climate change.

Present	Faculty Member, University of Rhode Island
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Agricultural and Resource Economics and Economics

Cost Misperception and Voting for Public Goods (Corey Lang, Casey J. Wichman, Michael J. Weir, et al.) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Working Papers (2022)

Public good provision is often determined through referendums by voters, who weigh benefits against costs. We evaluate voter perceptions of the private costs of providing public goods by conducting three exit polls of New England ...

The human health effects of harmful algal blooms in Florida: The importance of high resolution data (Andrew Bechard and Corey Lang) Harmful Algae (2024)

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been found to cause increases in healthcare visits for a variety of illnesses to humans if exposure and contact is sufficient. We use a more comprehensive dataset than previously implemented ...

Voter Approval of Bond Referendums: The Role of Bond Amount and Ballot Characteristics (Andrew Bechard, Corey Lang and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz) State Politics & Policy Quarterly (2024)

Municipal and state governments are often constitutionally bound to ask voters to approve new government debt through voting on bond referendums. Generally, politicians expect voters to balk at higher-cost bonds and be more willing to ...

Voter support for bond referenda: Does it matter if costs are presented as aggregate vs. personal costs? (Corey Lang, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz and Zachary Scott) Public Budgeting & Finance (2024)

We explore whether voters' willingness to approve government spending in bond elections is affected by how costs are presented. Using an original survey experiment, we examine willingness to approve bonds, randomizing both the total cost ...

House of the rising sun: The effect of utility-scale solar arrays on housing prices (Vasundhara Gaur and Corey Lang) Energy Economics (2023)

While utility-scale solar energy is important for reducing dependence on fossil fuels, solar arrays use significant amounts of land (about 5 acres per MW of capacity) and may create local land use disamenities. This paper ...

Increasing voluntary enrollment in time-of-use electricity rates: Findings from a survey experiment (Corey Lang, Yueming Lucy Qiu and Luran Dong) Energy Policy (2023)

Relative to flat rate pricing, time-of-use (TOU) electricity rates improve alignment of household incentives to reduce electricity consumption during times when the wholesale cost of electricity is expensive. This research seeks to understand factors of ...

Property value impacts of onshore wind energy in New England: The importance of spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics (Luran Dong, Vasundhara Gaur and Corey Lang) Energy Policy (2023)

The purpose of this paper is to update and extend prior studies that examine the impact of onshore wind turbines on property values. Our data come from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, two states that are ...

Seafood consumption during harmful algal blooms: The impact of information regarding safety and health (Andrew Bechard and Corey Lang) Harmful Algae (2023)

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can cause massive fish kills all over the world. However, some commercially caught species are safe to eat. The fish safe for consumption are vastly different from the fish that wash ...

The aftermath of ballot box success and failure: evidence from land preservation referendums (Carrie Gill, Corey Lang and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz) Journal of Public Policy (2023)

State and local governments put hundreds of referendums on the ballot each year. Often, they pass but sometimes they fail. What happens after a successful or failed attempt at the ballot box? Do advocates go ...

When Energy Issues Are Land Use Issues: Estimating Preferences for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Siting (Vasundhara Gaur, Corey Lang, Gregory Howard, et al.) Land Economics (2023)

Although solar energy receives broad support in general, utility-scale solar arrays can be contentious because at the siting stage, it becomes a land use issue replete with potential disamenities and trade-offs. We conduct a choice ...

Do views of offshore wind energy detract? A hedonic price analysis of the Block Island wind farm in Rhode Island (Luran Dong and Corey Lang) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2022)

Social concern and disapproval of offshore wind by coastal communities causes delays and costs to offshore wind development. One concern is property value impacts stemming from a loss of pristine ocean views. We evaluate this ...

Aggregate data yield biased estimates of voter preferences (Corey Lang and Shana Pearson-Merkowitz) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2022)

Voter preferences and valuation of public goods are often estimated using aggregated votes matched with Census data at the same spatial scale. However, this method may yield biased estimates for two reasons we examine in ...

Status quo bias and public policy: evidence in the context of carbon mitigation (Corey Lang, Michael Weir and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz) Environmental Research Letters (2021)

This article examines whether individuals’ preferences for government policy are affected by status quo bias. We designed a contingent valuation survey that asks respondents directly about their willingness to pay (WTP) for their state to ...

Variation in Valuation: Open Space and Geography (Alex Blanchette, Corey Lang and Jarron VanCeylon) Land Economics (2021)

We estimate hedonic valuation models of local open space separately for 215 cities in the Eastern US, and derive city-specific marginal willingness to pay (MWTP). We then examine variation in MWTP and city-level determinants. Valuation ...

How Are Tourists Affected By Offshore Wind Turbines? A Case Study Of The First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm (Simona Trandafir, Vasundhara Gaur, Priya Behanan, et al.) Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics (2020)

This paper examines the impact of the construction of United States’ first offshore wind farm off the coast of Block Island on tourism, the largest revenue generator for the island. Using a stated preference survey, ...

Value of protected areas to avian persistence across 20 years of climate and land-use change (Michelle A. Peach, Jonathan B. Cohen, Jacqueline L. Frair, et al.) Conservation Biology (2019)

Establishing protected areas, where human activities and land cover changes are restricted, is among the most widely used strategies for biodiversity conservation. This practice is based on the assumption that protected areas buffer species from ...

Sustainability and tourism: the effect of the United States’ first offshore wind farm on the vacation rental market (Andrew Carr-Harris and Corey Lang) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2019)

One concern with offshore wind energy development is a negative impact to tourism. In this paper we assess this concern by examining how the Block Island Wind Farm, the first of its kind in the ...

Valuation of the External Costs of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development: The Critical Importance of Mineral Rights Ownership (Andrew Boslett, Todd Guilfoos and Corey Lang) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2019)

We quantify the externalities associated with unconventional oil and gas development using hedonic valuation. One complication in determining local impacts is that some but not all properties are unified with mineral rights, which enable the ...

Learn to Conserve: The Effects of In-School Energy Education on At-Home Electricity Consumption (Carrie Gill and Corey Lang) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2018)

Environmental education for school students, including lessons on recycling, water conservation, and energy reduction, is a popular measure aimed at increasing environmental knowledge, promoting environmental attitudes, and increasing pro-environmental behaviors. Despite the prevalence of such ...

Assessing the Efficiency of Local Open Space Provision (Corey Lang) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2018)

This paper tests the efficiency of local provision of land conservation. I examine how housing prices, which capitalize open space amenities and future tax obligations, change after municipalities vote on referendums for conservation spending. Using ...

How does municipal policy affect state and local actions? Evidence from land conservation spending (Corey Lang, Patrick Prendergast and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2018)

Understanding responses to government action is critical for developing efficient policy. In the context of land conservation, this paper examines whether municipal policy has a crowding-in or crowding-out effect on neighboring municipalities’ actions and state ...

Incomplete Information and Adverse Impacts of Environmental Cleanup (Corey Lang and Patrick Cavanagh) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2018)

We use the hedonic method to examine the external effects of Rhode Island’s voluntary brownfield program. We hypothesize that housing price impacts are a combination of valuation of environmental improvement and response to information disclosure ...

Can urban areas help sustain the preservation of open space? Evidence from statewide referenda (Matthew Altonji, Corey Lang and Gavino Puggioni) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications (2016)

Statewide referenda for land conservation are likely to entail a disparity between people who vote on the referenda and those who live in proximity to conserved areas, which may lead to a lower probability of ...

The Effect of Tropical Cyclones on Climate Change Engagement (Corey Lang and John David Ryder) Climatic Change (2016)

Personal experience can influence our attitudes and actions concerning climate change. This paper examines the experience-perception link in relation to tropical cyclones using a distinctly revealed preference approach, mitigating biases of prior research in this ...

The Dynamics of House Price Responsiveness and Locational Sorting: Evidence from Air Quality Changes (Corey Lang) Regional Science and Urban Economics (2015)

Despite extensive use of housing data to reveal valuation of non-market goods, the process of house price adjustment remains vague. Using the restricted access American Housing Survey, a high-frequency panel of prices, turnover, and occupant ...