Year of Award
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
Master of Arts (MA)
Degree Name
Economics
Department or School/College
Department of Economics
Committee Chair
Matthew Taylor
Commitee Members
Katrina Mullan, Alexander Metcalf
Keywords
wildfire, risk, mitigation, WUI, Montana
Subject Categories
Behavioral Economics | Econometrics | Other Economics | Regional Economics
Abstract
Fire prevention managers find that homeowners often do not perform mitigation actions that could reduce the damage and spread of wildfire. There is widespread belief among these fire professionals that one of the primary reasons that homeowners do not perform mitigation actions is that homeowners misperceive the risk that wildfire poses. Thus, a significant component of fire prevention programs’ focus on increasing homeowner awareness of the risk. However, it is possible that homeowners are aware of the fire risk but choose not to mitigate because of a variety of reasons, to include the costs of mitigation, limited monetary liability that they have after they insure the property, or doubts about the benefits of mitigation. I combine survey data obtained from Montana property owners with simulated fire probabilities for their parcels to test whether homeowners who report greater concern about the risk of fire conduct more mitigation activities. Using an instrumental variable approach, I find that increased homeowner concern about the risk of wildfire causes them to conduct significantly more mitigation activities.
Recommended Citation
Nagle, Madison G., "Wildfire Risk Perception and Homeowner Mitigation: Evidence from Montana" (2018). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11158.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11158
Included in
Behavioral Economics Commons, Econometrics Commons, Other Economics Commons, Regional Economics Commons
© Copyright 2018 Madison G. Nagle