On October 19, 2022, Dr. Allison Shertzer from the University of Pittsburgh will present, “The Value of Piped Water and Sewers: Evidence from 19th Century Chicago,” as part of the EEEPI Seminar Series.
Abstract: We estimate the impact of piped water and sewers on property values in late-19th century Chicago. The cost of sewer construction depends sensitively on imperceptible variation in grade, and such variations in grade delay water and sewer service to part of the city. This delay provides quasi-random variation for causal estimates. We extrapolate ATE estimates from our natural experiment to the area treated with water and sewer service during 1874-1880 using a new estimator. Water and sewer access increases property values by more than a factor of two. This exceeds costs by almost a factor of 40.
Speaker Bio: Allison Shertzer is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh and a faculty research fellow at the NBER. Her research focuses on the inclusion and exclusion of minorities and the development of cities in American economic history. One strand of her work focuses on the political and educational integration of immigrants in the early twentieth century. She is also interested in origins of residential segregation by race in the United States. Her current research explores evolution of housing prices and the provision of public goods in cities. She holds a B.S. in industrial engineering and a B.A. in mathematics from Arizona State University as well as a Ph.D in economics from UCLA.