Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
Department
Environmental & Natural Resource Economics
First Advisor
Emi Uchida
Abstract
Water pollution remains a pervasive and inequitable environmental threat in the United States, with mounting evidence that its burdens - whether in recreational or drinking water contexts - are unevenly distributed across communities. Urbanization, aging infrastructure, and industrial contamination have degraded both coastal waters and drinking water systems, posing serious public health and welfare concerns. At the same time, the extent to which water quality influences behavioral decisions, such as beach recreation or household adoption of water filters, remains poorly understood. Although drinking water pollution is widely ranked as a top environmental concern in national surveys, public knowledge of specific threats like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - also known as forever chemicals or emerging contaminants - is alarmingly low. Likewise, while clean beaches represent important public goods that provide health, leisure, and economic benefits, structural disparities may prevent equal access to these resources. As a result, some communities may face greater risks of exposure while simultaneously experiencing more barriers to mitigation and fewer benefits from improvements in water quality.
Despite growing attention to unequal exposure to pollution in the US, most existing research focuses on drinking water contaminants or air quality, with little attention to how variation in water quality affects behaviors related to recreational use of coastal beaches. Furthermore, studies addressing drinking water issues often concentrate on technical solutions or regulations, overlooking whether households understand these risks and how they respond. People also struggle to connect water quality with long-term health outcomes, particularly in the case of relatively unfamiliar emerging contaminants like PFAS. Hence, this dissertation addresses these challenges through three empirical studies. The first chapter evaluates the effect of water quality on recreational beach use and its heterogenous impact across racial and income groups. The second investigates national patterns in knowledge, awareness, and concern about PFAS pollution and the drivers of current adoption of water filters. The third assesses whether personalized risk information can motivate self-protective behaviors.
Our research addresses these critical gaps by examining water quality-related behaviors in both recreational and household contexts through the lens of environmental equity and decision-making. We use a combination of observational and experimental methods, novel data sources, and geospatial and econometric techniques to provide empirical answers to three interrelated questions. Taken together, these studies build a comprehensive understanding of how disparities knowledge, resources, and environmental quality reinforce one another, and how interventions can be better targeted to mitigate these gaps.
To assess the heterogenous effects of coastal water quality improvements, we evaluate the recreational impacts of water clarity on saltwater beach visitation in Southern New England, a region characterized by high density of urban coastal populations and persistent water quality issues. We use anonymized cell phone location data from the summers of 2018 and 2019 to track monthly visitation patterns from Census Block Groups (CBGs) to 789 unique coastal Points of Interest (POIs) located within a 100-mile radius of the Rhode Island border. We integrate these visitation data derived from mobility data with Landsat 8 satellite water clarity measurements, beach closure events and action duration days derived from the BEACON system, and socioeconomic indicators from the US Census. This rich, spatially explicit panel dataset enables us to estimate travel cost models that isolate the role of water quality in recreational beach choice and calculate welfare impacts of hypothetical water quality improvements across income and racial groups.
To study household responses to PFAS contamination, we fielded a nationally representative online survey and conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) targeting 2000 people. The survey assessed water preferences, self-assessed PFAS knowledge and risk, water supply type (private well vs. public), and socio-demographic characteristics. We used LASSO regression to select key variables related to filter adoption, followed by logistic regression analysis. The RCT tested the impact of three information treatments: none, generic, and personalized PFAS information. Personalized PFAS information had three messages tailored to specific household vulnerabilities, such as the presence of children, pregnancy, or PFAS-related diseases. We then compared search behavior, stated interest, and actual proof of water filter purchases across treatment groups.
Results from the coastal recreation analysis reveal that water clarity is a critical determinant of beach visitation. A one-meter increase in clarity leads to an 11.8 percentage points rise in visitation per capita per month for CBGs with the highest income and lowest racial diversity. However, this benefit is not equally distributed. In CBGs with high poverty rates or greater racial diversity, the same water clarity improvement yields significantly smaller increases in visitation (about 3.8 percentage points less). These disparities suggest that even when environmental conditions improve, structural barriers may prevent disadvantaged populations from reaping the full benefits. Welfare simulations confirm this pattern: although a 10% improvement in water clarity increases consumer surplus for all groups, the magnitude of these gains is lower for low-income and minority communities. These findings align with earlier qualitative research indicating that marginalized communities often face longer travel distances and higher costs to reach desirable beach sites.
In the context of PFAS in drinking water, the survey reveals widespread gaps in public understanding. Knowledge, awareness, and concern about PFAS contamination of drinking water remains alarmingly low in the US. Those who had heard of local PFAS contamination, expressed higher awareness or confidence in regulations, or had children at home were significantly more likely to own certified filters. Additionally, satisfaction with the taste of tap water was associated with lower concern about PFAS, despite greater self-reported knowledge, indicating that perceptual cues can lead individuals to underestimate contamination risks. Notably, private well users reported levels of PFAS knowledge similar to those on public systems but were less likely to express concern or feel equipped to assess their exposure, reflecting decades of regulatory exclusion. These findings highlight the urgent need for tailored risk communication that addresses gaps in both knowledge and perceived vulnerability.
The RCT results evidenced the modest yet significance of information nudges to promote self-protective behaviors like the adoption of certified water filters. Chapter 3 shows that generic messages modestly increased online search behavior, while personalized messages heightened immediate stated interest. However, neither treatment significantly increased proof of filter purchases - the primary indicator of protective behavior. These results contribute to the growing literature on moral green nudges and the difficulty of translating environmental awareness into real-world action, particularly in the case of emerging contaminants that lack clear sensory indicators or widespread public recognition.
Collectively, these findings offer several contributions to environmental economics literature. First, they demonstrate that water quality improvements do not benefit all communities equally and that structural inequalities may constrain the ability of disadvantaged populations to access cleaner environments. Second, they show that public awareness of PFAS pollution is low and uneven, shaped by household characteristics and water preferences. Third, these findings highlight the limitations of information interventions alone in prompting immediate protective behaviors and underscore the need to address transaction costs and allow longer timeframes for decision-making. These insights are critical for designing more effective interventions and informing the implementation of recent regulatory efforts, such as the 2024 National Primary Drinking Water Regulation on PFAS.
Policymakers and public agencies must recognize that one-size-fits-all approaches are unlikely to address unequal exposure or behavioral response to water pollution. Instead, targeted interventions - such as improving public transportation to coastal amenities, subsidizing certified water filters for vulnerable households, and tailoring messages based on household characteristics - are needed to ensure that environmental improvements translate into equitable health and welfare gains. This research underscores the importance of considering both structural and behavioral constraints when evaluating the distributional impacts of environmental quality and offers practical guidance for building more inclusive, responsive, and effective environmental policies in the US.
Recommended Citation
Refulio Coronado, Sonia M., "ESSAYS ON HUMAN DECISIONS RELATED TO WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS IN THE UNITED STATES" (2025). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 4506.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/4506