Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole, MA
The work I conducted as a guest student in the Marine Policy Center at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) this summer allowed me to explore and expand my interests in environmental economics and public policy, gain experience contributing to academic research, and conduct independent economic analyses to inform coastal management strategies for communities located in close proximity to the ocean. Working with economist and marine policy specialist Dr. Porter Hoagland, I was quickly introduced to a world of topics that connected ocean research to applications in economics, law, and policy; with Dr. Hoagland’s guidance, I decided to focus my efforts on coastal management policy, particularly as it relates to residential development in communities located directly along the shoreline. I conducted an economic study examining homes in the town of Scituate, Mass.; this coastal community is characterized by extensive oceanfront development, accelerated rates of shoreline erosion and extensive heavy armoring such as seawalls and revetments along the ocean to protect property from coastal hazards. This area often experiences disastrous and expensive outcomes as a result of Nor’easters, seasonal storms, and hurricanes. These storm events can elevate regional sea level by several meters; powerful surge waves repeatedly hammer the coast, often resulting in significant erosion, flooding and the damaging of nearby residences. Rising sea levels and increased storm severity and frequency driven by climate change has only exacerbated the consequences associated with these events; Scituate consistently receives some of the largest state and federal grants in Massachusetts to fund resiliency efforts and the rehabilitation of protective features along the municipality’s exposed coast. In order to better understand the implications of these programs and design more efficient and equitable policy for addressing these issues in the future, I implemented a hedonic pricing model to estimate the impact of environmental characteristics such as ocean amenities, flood risk, coastal protective features and shoreline change on property values in this area.
The hedonic model analyzes each property as a function of its many characteristics, both tangible (e.g. lot size, structure style) and intangible (e.g. quality of school district, distance to the ocean). It is relatively comparable to a multiple regression; it attempts to predict a dependent variable—in this context, the recent sales price of a home—as a function of many explanatory variables, which are the property’s characteristics. Through this modeling, the marginal contribution of these characteristics to a given home’s value is estimated; these estimates represent the implicit price for one additional unit of the characteristic in question. Using public data sources and systems at WHOI, I collected an extensive amount of data on properties in this one coastal locality of New England; I learned to work with a GIS program in order to understand the spatial and geographic complexities of the dataset and incorporate environmental factors into the analysis. I refined my skills with Excel and the statistical computing program R in order to compile and analyze this information; my project culminated in a paper detailing the methods and results of my analysis and their applications in informing shoreline protection policy and climate change response strategies in the study region. With the support of my mentor, the report is currently being considered for publication; it has been incredibly rewarding to know that this project may contribute to an ongoing literature that addresses issues related to risky coastal development and offers policy insights that can inform coastal resiliency efforts and mitigate hazards associated with living near the ocean.
Living in Woods Hole and working at one of the leading institutes in ocean research was an incredibly rewarding and eye-opening experience both in and out of the Policy Center; I was surrounded by fellow undergraduate students investigating projects related to marine ecology, biology and biochemistry, physical oceanography and engineering, each of whom had a unique interest in their studies and were happy to discuss their research. I attended a summer student lecture series and weekly seminars—including one given by Williams Professor of Biology Ron Bassar—that provided an amazing introduction to the breadth of oceanographic research conducted at WHOI and other institutions throughout the world. I received wonderful support and ideas from many mentors—most notably Dr. Hoagland and Dr. Di Jin—in my department and enjoyed learning about their experiences working in a field of academic research.
Looking to the future, this experience has certainly inspired my academic direction at Williams and has significantly influenced the path I hope to pursue after I graduate; it has strengthened my passion for public policy as well as related studies of economics and environmental science, helping me to begin to think about themes and questions for an economic thesis and choosing a master’s program in one of these fields. Despite the many often tedious hours of literature review, data collection and programming mistakes, I truly loved doing meaningful work at the Marine Policy Center, collaborating with amazingly talented and supportive researchers and creating something that attempts to address the issues of people living in communities at risk. Provided with constant energy and motivation from the other two students working in the Policy Center this summer, I was always excited to take the next small step and continue developing my project; I could always rely on my mentors to guide me with difficult components of the analysis, critique my methods and review my conclusions when necessary. This environment facilitated a productive and enjoyable research experience, contributing to a desire to further pursue environmental and economic public policy in the future. I am so grateful to the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and Dr. James D. Marver for providing me with the resources necessary to have this wonderful opportunity.
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