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Title: Are ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ Contagious? An Epidemic Approach on Networks to Study Peer Effects

Abstract

Here, we test the existence of a neighborhood based peer effect around participation in an incentive based conservation program called ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ (WSL) in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. We use 15 years of geo-coded daily records of WSL program applications and approvals compiled by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Clark County Tax Assessors rolls for home characteristics. We use this data to test whether a spatially mediated peer effect can be observed in WSL participation likelihood at the household level. We show that epidemic spreading models provide more flexibility in modeling assumptions, and also provide one mechanism for addressing problems associated with correlated unobservables than hazards models which can also be applied to address the same questions. We build networks of neighborhood based peers for 16 randomly selected neighborhoods in Las Vegas and test for the existence of a peer based influence on WSL participation by using a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered epidemic spreading model (SEIR), in which a home can become infected via autoinfection or through contagion from its infected neighbors. We show that this type of epidemic model can be directly recast to an additive-multiplicative hazard model, but not to purely multiplicative one. Using both inference andmore » prediction approaches we find evidence of peer effects in several Las Vegas neighborhoods.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1462888
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Networks and Spatial Economics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 1566-113X
Publisher:
Springer
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Brelsford, Christa M., and De Bacco, Caterina. Are ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ Contagious? An Epidemic Approach on Networks to Study Peer Effects. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1007/s11067-018-9416-z.
Brelsford, Christa M., & De Bacco, Caterina. Are ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ Contagious? An Epidemic Approach on Networks to Study Peer Effects. United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-018-9416-z
Brelsford, Christa M., and De Bacco, Caterina. Fri . "Are ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ Contagious? An Epidemic Approach on Networks to Study Peer Effects". United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-018-9416-z. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1462888.
@article{osti_1462888,
title = {Are ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ Contagious? An Epidemic Approach on Networks to Study Peer Effects},
author = {Brelsford, Christa M. and De Bacco, Caterina},
abstractNote = {Here, we test the existence of a neighborhood based peer effect around participation in an incentive based conservation program called ‘Water Smart Landscapes’ (WSL) in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. We use 15 years of geo-coded daily records of WSL program applications and approvals compiled by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Clark County Tax Assessors rolls for home characteristics. We use this data to test whether a spatially mediated peer effect can be observed in WSL participation likelihood at the household level. We show that epidemic spreading models provide more flexibility in modeling assumptions, and also provide one mechanism for addressing problems associated with correlated unobservables than hazards models which can also be applied to address the same questions. We build networks of neighborhood based peers for 16 randomly selected neighborhoods in Las Vegas and test for the existence of a peer based influence on WSL participation by using a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered epidemic spreading model (SEIR), in which a home can become infected via autoinfection or through contagion from its infected neighbors. We show that this type of epidemic model can be directly recast to an additive-multiplicative hazard model, but not to purely multiplicative one. Using both inference and prediction approaches we find evidence of peer effects in several Las Vegas neighborhoods.},
doi = {10.1007/s11067-018-9416-z},
journal = {Networks and Spatial Economics},
number = ,
volume = 18,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Fri Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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