This edited book volume, from Stanford University Press, explores the spatial correlation between pollution and poor and minority populations, as identified in the
environmental justice literature. A number of social processes could give rise to this correlation, including "pure discrimination,"
differences among local populations in their political activism, locational choices by polluting firms driven by low land costs and
wages,and discriminatory pollution enforcement from governments. Another possibility is a market process in which richer households move
away, while poorer households move in (or stay behind), prioritizing low housing costs over environmental amenities. The book evaluates
the evidence for each of these underlying processes as well as their implications for policy remedies. It is the most comprehensive look
at the issue from the perspective of economics to date, but is written for a wide audience of policy makers and analysts of environmental
justice issues.
The volume is based on papers presented at an October 2008 Lone Mountain Forum organized by the Property and Environment Research Center
(PERC). The conference was made possible by generous support from the Earhart foundation.
I. Household Behavior and Land Markets: Theoretical Considerations
Section I Introduction
2. Moving Beyond Cleanup: Identifying the Crucibles of Environmental Gentrification
H. Spencer Banzhaf and Eleanor McCormick
3. Does Environmental Remediation Benefit the Poor?
Jacob Vidgor
4. Environmental Gentrification and Discrimination
H. Spencer Banzhaf, Joshua Sidon, and Randall P. Walsh
II. Household Behavior and Land Markets: Empirical Explorations
Section II Introduction
5. Residential Mobility and Ozone Exposure: Challenges for Environmental Justice Policy
Brooks Depro and Christopher Timmins
6. Superfund Taint and Neighborhood Change: Ethnicity, Age Distributions, and Household Structure
Trudy Ann Cameron, Graham D. Crawford, and Ian T. McConnaha
7. Amenities Tomorrow: A Greenbelt Project’s Impacts over Space, Time
Douglas S. Noonan
III. The Behavior of Polluting Firms
Section III Introduction
8. The Role of Demographic and Cost-Related Factors in Determining Where Plants Locate: A Tale of Two Texas Cities
Ann Wolverton
IV. Government Regulation and Enforcement
Section IV Introduction
9. Spatial Patterns in Regulatory Enforcement: Local Tests of Environmental Justice
Ronald J. Shadbegian and Wayne B. Gray
10. An Examination of the Correlation between Race and State Hazardous and Solid Waste Taxes
Robin R. Jenkins and Kelly B. Maguire
